The new semblance of Begging

One fine day, as I was passing by the Farmgate cinema hall, I noticed one of my friends there, waiting for her car. I went over to her and we started a conversation. All of a sudden, a poor little boy about three to four years old came towards my friend and pulled at her dress. He then started to cry at the top of his lungs. We were stunned. I gave him a small amount of money and asked him to go away but he refused. He seemed to be much louder now, which was drawing a small crowd around us. Suddenly, he stopped and silently asked me for ten Taka, “Naile jamu na” (Otherwise I won't leave), he concluded. Blood started to rush to my head upon hearing this. I pulled the little boy aside violently by his hand and told him to leave in a very rude voice. The little boy at once left, quite surprised at my behaviour in front of my friend. I feel really bad because it is mostly the girls who are victims of these beggars and they don't leave unless they (the beggars) get something. This is somewhat like 'hijacking', isn't it?

Joydeep Sarkar
N.D.C.

Old man fight.

It was a hot and humid day and I was travelling with much discomfort by a City bus. The road was totally jammed with all kinds of vehicles. We had a clever bus driver who wanted to take a detour to avoid the snail movement of the traffic ahead. Even though most people agreed, some opposed the idea, as they would have to walk a small distance in order to reach their destinations. An altercation immediately started between the passengers and the conductors. I was watching all this like a silent spectator, as it didn't seem safe to intervene in such a heated discussion. I noticed an old man starting to push and shove at one of the conductors which immediately started a scuffle. Finally, an all-out fight broke out, with punches being thrown in all directions. From the corner of my eyes, I saw the old fellow silently get down from the bus. He got on a rickshaw and left the scene with a devilish grin on his face.

Mohammed Sohel Hara
Olympia Palace Restaurant

Tangled In the Web

My friend is one of those people who take the Internet for granted. She looks upon it as a place where she can completely change her identity and become someone different. It was at Bangla Café that she met a guy called Sayeed and gave him a fictitious identity of herself. Her online name was Sara and everything about her was untrue. Sayeed began to get really serious about her and wrote her huge pathetic love mails in improper English. When he asked for a picture of her, my friend sent him the picture of a girl she had met on the net, who was called Sara. She was pulling the whole thing off fine until that fateful day when Sayeed sent a mail calling her by her real a name and asking how she could betray his trust. Apparently, he had met the real Sara in his university campus. When he showed Sara the mails, which he thought to be from her, she recognised the writer's mail address and gave him her real identity. This incident should teach some people not to fool around on the net.

Aniqa
Dhaka