Change
of Skin
I
was on my way home from a friend's place when the police on
Banani Bridge brought my mishuk to a halt. I knew that
it was routine inspection and they were simply checking the
vehicle for arms and other such illegal manifestations. I asked
the policeman aged about 25, if I needed to get down for them
to perform a body search. He told me that it was not necessary
as they were looking for a stolen mishuk. He gently
asked the mishuk driver for his papers. The mishukwalla,
who had to be about 40, seemed a little agitated to comply with
the policeman's request. He kept mumbling about something regarding
a case against his license. After going through the papers the
policeman told the mishukwalla that his papers were
a month old. What happened next shocked me. The mishukwalla
totally lost his temper and started to scream at the policeman
at the top of his lungs. He told the frightened policeman that
"you have no right to make false accusations and change
facts, just because I am poor and illiterate". The bemused
policeman, totally taken aback, looked thoroughly through the
papers again and realised that he had been wrong. The papers
were just three days old but the mishukwalla was supposed
to have renewed the papers by now. The driver told the policeman
that the hartals and the 'economic ' state of the country made
it impossible for him to have his papers renewed. The policeman
said no more and we were soon on our way. I took a dare and
asked the mishukwalla why he was so harsh with the
policeman, to which he replied, "If I didn't do the shouting,
then he would have, and it is better to be more giving than
to receive." I said no more.
SIB,
Banani
Social
Recidivism
Even
though the drug business in Bangladesh is punishable by law
(the highest punishment being the death sentence), the drug
peddlers here are still dealing it in broad daylight. They are
in all nooks and corners in Dhaka city. A few days back, I was
on my way to my uncle's place in Kataban on foot. I passed by
two fellows who called out to me, "Apnee jaa chan,
aikhane shoobe paben." (Whatever you want, we have
it all here.) Consecutively, I stopped and asked him what he
had. He confidently said, "Ganja, dayle, heroine, Bangla
madh…ar ki chan?" (Cannabis, phensydyl, heroine, local
spirit…what else do you need?) I simply replied that I did not
require any of the items on his list. They must have found my
answer rather sarcastic because they started to jeer at me.
I quickly went about my way. Though there were a lot of people
in the area, no one seemed bothered about the duo who were busy
about their 'business' bothering innocent passerbys. I still
wonder how these people get so much courage to do what they
do in during daytime and crowded public places.
Md.
Jabed Amin, Khilkhet
Life
on the Streets
As
I was getting down from a bus in Mirpur, I witnessed a rather
pathetic scene. One of the local fruit sellers had thrown a
carton away and a hoard of street children rushed to it to see
what it contained. I noticed some rotten fruits in the carton
but the children were going crazy with joy. It was almost as
if they had won some lottery ticket, though what they had won
were some leftover grapes but they showed no signs of disappointment.
They just accepted what they got and were happy with it. It
was amazing to see how they managed to share such a small portion
of grapes amongst so many of them. I just wonder what the reaction
of the children would have been if they had received that box
full of fresh grapes!
Md.
Sohrab Hossain, East Shewapara, Mirpur
