United
we stand
I was on
my way to university in the morning. I was at a Kallyanpur bus
stand trying to catch a ride when I noticed a huge crowd of
people, engaged in a ruckus. I was inquisitive, eager to quench
my curiosity about what was going on. I zeroed in on them. As
I got closer to the crowd, I felt that something was amiss.
I realised that I was looking at a scene of a struggle that
broke from maltreatment meted out to a rikshawwalla. As I asked
other eager bystanders what had happened, I came to know that
a traffic police, without any signs of warning, charged his
baton on an old rickshaw puller whose only crime was that he
was parked on the wrong side of the street. Although he was
old, he protested and started hurling accusations back at the
traffic police. Meanwhile, a traffic sergeant came to the scene
and joined force with the traffic police, asking the poor rickshaw
puller to quickly vacate the scene. Within a short time, the
news about the rickshaw puller being beaten got around and many
rickshaw pullers and labourers rushed to the scene, to get a
bit of the action. The old rickshaw puller's resilience paid
off. Within moments, there was a mass of people, all of them
siding with the rickshaw walla. Finally, the Ansar was forced
to beg forgiveness from the poor old man for his misbehaviour
and then, the crowd dispersed. I guess sometimes, it does pay
to be united to stand against injustice.
Md.
Aktaruzzaman Dipu, MSS, Sociology, DU
Illegal
mobile market
A
few days ago, I went to Stadium market with one of my friends
to buy a scientific calculator. When we were doing our rounds
from one shop to another to get my desirable model of calculator,
at one point, a person came to me and offered me a mobile set
asking for a very low price. He accosted me, “Mobile lagbo bhai,
half dame baicha dimu?” Then he showed me a Siemens mobile set
and demanded only Tk 1500 for it. I was very surprised but my
friend took me away from there. Later I realised that he was
one of those men who operates as sellers of stolen appliances.
The sets do not have any legal papers and as a rule they hunt
for prospective buyers in front of the electronic shops.
Kushal,
Kamalapur, Dhaka
Where
is our humanity?
Last
week, I was travelling with my friend from Farmgate to Gulistan.
We were seated near the rear of a 'Number 6' bus and an elderly
man was seated behind us, quite close to the door with an umbrella
in his hand. After passing by the Engineering Institute area,
we went over a speed- breaker and since 'slowing down' is not
a phrase in the driver's vocabulary, he made no attempt to brake.
The jerk made the old man lose his grip on the umbrella and
it flew out of the vehicle. The poor old man started to shout,
telling the driver to stop but the driver ignored his cries.
The incident occurred right in front of the fair collector but,
he too did not react in any way to the old man's demands. It
was almost as if no one was bothered about the man's umbrella.
When we saw his disappointed face, we knew that we had to do
something to help. We tried to tell the driver to stop but to
no use. Pretty soon, all of the passengers started to shout
at the driver who finally, brought the vehicle to a halt. The
old man hurried out to find his umbrella. I am not sure if he
could retrieve his belonging but it was really sad to see the
cold nature of some of our fellow countrymen.
Masum,
JU