Feature

LOAD

FAZAL Mia is a landless farmer in a far-flung village of Kurigram in Northern Bangladesh. He tills others' land in share-cropping arrangement. He has a wife and five children in his family. He struggles to maintain the family with his meager income. Moreover, every year he has to face the famine-like situation called monga. Sometimes he feels like perishing from the world. He lives in distress with no hope in view. Life appears to be a great “load” on his shoulder. He can hardly bear it.

'Load' is a simple word of four letters but sometimes it may really be very difficult to bear. A load may be big or small as it invokes the sense of weight. You may feel comfortable with the sight of a light load but be afraid of a heavy one. Load also implies the necessity of carrying. It is something which has been bound in a particular way and ready to be carried off. It may be borne with or without payment. If you drag your life on without any payoff at all it is just drudgery, as Fazal Mia is doing.

There are a lot of actions involved in the word 'load'. You may load a sack with sand, a truck with bricks or an aircraft with cargo. You may even load a gun with bullets and a camera with films. And later, you may unload the container after it is loaded. But everything cannot be unloaded so easily. You may load your brain with a lot of concerns for your lover but cannot unload it after you are rejected. Sometimes it is beneficial for you. For example, you may be rewarded with good scores if you take an extra bit of what you have to learn for exam. So, hurry up to get a load of that!

When you put things on the carrier above its capacity, you overload it. The consequence is not good, however. The carrier may collapse or break down. An overloaded ship may sink; a bus overloaded with passengers may meet accident. If you overload your belly with all delicious foods (which are loaded with spices), you may have to unload them with vomiting.

A doctor or lawyer may be burdened with caseload just as a garments worker with workload. A bureaucrat may be found sitting with fileload, which means money for him. We the teachers do not like to be overloaded with courses. Remaining underloaded is also not desirable. Everybody should get his/her optimal load. But loads of hazards lurk around. A load of naughty kids may make a teacher's life hell. When you finish with them, you feel a load off your mind!

Technology has increased the load of language with neologisms. It has given rise to such terms as 'download' and 'upload'. When you click internet and get thing ready for your reading or viewing on monitor screen, you have downloaded it. When you throw stuff in internet for other's reading and viewing, following a technical procedure, you upload it. Uploading is like preparing bread and downloading is consuming it. Preparation is of course a bit difficult than consumption.

Load becomes electrical when it comes to your house through wire. The power distribution companies have to manage load so that TV, fridge, fan and air conditioner can be operated at home and office. Sometimes the power people have to resort to what is called 'load shedding' when electricity is in short supply. In that case they have to illuminate one area keeping other areas in darkness. It is the light-dark play, very common in the third world countries like ours. Things here are a load of rubbish!

Load can be placed in history and politics. At the moment the Chief Advisor of Caretaker Government is laden with the great responsibility of holding free and fair election in the country. If he can discharge his responsibility properly, he will secure a respectable place in the history of Bangladesh. Otherwise the doom is there. The people of the country are waiting eagerly for democracy to return. They want an end to political uncertainty. The nation must be relieved of the load on its back.

(The writer is Assistant Professor and Head, Department of English, Daffodil International University.)