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<%-- Page Title--%> Impressions <%-- End Page Title--%>

<%-- Volume Number --%> Vol 1 Num 121 <%-- End Volume Number --%>

September 5 , 2003

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Unveiling an unknown truth

I was waiting for the bus at the Shewrapara bus stop. Since the bus was late, I thought I would have some nuts to wile away the time. I asked a badamwala nearby to give me 50 grams of nuts. When he handed me the packet, it seemed to weigh lighter than what I had asked for. I jokingly asked the badamwala if there was actually 50 grams worth of nuts in the packet. I asked laughingly to keep the atmosphere light. The badamwala smiled back at me and, to my sheer astonishment, admitted that there was only 35 grams of nuts in the pack. Without any sense of discomfort, he added that all badamwalas did the same. He said they could not make any profit from selling nuts worth 50 grams for 2 taka and the customers wouldn't pay more, so that was how it went.

Abul Kalam Azad,Department of Law, Dhaka University


Heartless man

One day I went to visit my friend in Jigatola. On the way there, I saw a man crying but no one else seemed to care. I approached him and asked why he was crying. He told me that he had carried a passenger on his rickshaw all day. When they reached the destination, the passenger told him to wait there for five minutes and that he would be back. Thirty minutes had passed and he hadn't come. The rickshaw-wala was very shocked and started crying. He had lost about Tk. 200 and his peace of mind. He began to cry loudly. The rickshaw-wala was helpless, but people who do this are heartless.

Zillur Rahman,Green Road Staff Quarters


Grey Days Ahead

We live in a city where the signs of nature are disappearing quickly. The only patches of greenery that we can see are in the form of public parks. The other day, while I was passing through Farmgate, a place I seldom need to go as I live in the old part of Dhaka, I noticed a strange thing. I was sitting in a Mirpur-bound bus, and as I was looking out the window, I noticed that the Farmgate Park, a small patch of land, was being hemmed with cement structures that looked like a beginning of a high wall. We, the city dwellers, are deprived of civic amenities. Whatever access we have to amenities like parks, the last remaining source of our contact with nature, are being annihilated and buildings or other structures are taking its place. This happened in several small parks in the old part of Dhaka. The park at the Farmgate crossing had a low iron railing and was open for all. What spurred the authorities to have it walled eludes me. It would only serve to block the view of the passers by. What do the authorities have against visual beauty?

Md. Mokbul Hossain,Patuatuly, Dhaka

 
     
   

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