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Dhaka
Diary
A
Civil Service
My
uncle's wallet had been stolen a few days ago, which had his
international credit card. As if that was not enough, a telephone
call to the bank revealed that goods worth Tk. 50,000 were
bought using the credit card on the same day. My uncle was
wondering as to when he made these transactions. Upon understanding
the illegal activities involved, we went to the local police
station, which was jampacked with all sorts of people. It
took some time to get any kind of attention from these men
of law and further delay in getting the attention of the officer-in-charge
(OC). If my uncle had not called his friend, a superintendent
of police, we would not have had the OC's complete attention.
He listened to what we had to say and then arranged a man
to help us write the GD. We handed it over to the officer-in-charge
after completing the process. However, the process of filing
the complaint was not finished. After filing the piece of
paper the OC giggled and asked my uncle very casually to buy
him a GP pre-paid card of Tk 600/-. My uncle hesitated for
a moment and then took out six fresh 100 taka notes and handed
it over to the constable, asking him to get a card for the
OC rewarding him for his very 'generous' service to us. I
couldn't help laughing at the bizarre yet very usual habits
of these people who might have a conscience worth exploring.
Saifur
Rahman Dhanmondi, Dhaka
Beware
the Red Light!
With
everyday developments in technology, traffic control has it's
own share of developments as well in Dhaka City. For some
unknown reason, the roundabout-circles in Gulshan 1 and Gulshan
2 were broken away to introduce a newer and a better way of
controlling traffic and to lessen the number of traffic jams.
However, every time I have to go to my classes or simply visit
friends, it takes more time than it did during the Gulshan
chokkor days, with the new traffic system of computerised
signals controlling the traffic on each lane. Unlike in other
countries, the green lights here do not stay lit for more
than 4 seconds at most, getting all the vehicles ever eager
to drive by, shoving and glaring at the 'next-door' driver.
Although the introduction of this new system is highly appreciable,
maybe we should think about how to actually use it, instead
of using it as a means to make people's lives even worse than
it already is.
DK
Baridhara
Child
Scavengers
As
I was walking towards home, my eyes caught sight of two poor
children fighting over something. I stopped to discover what
they were fighting for and to my utter despair, I saw a box
full of old and inedible sweets that the kids were fighting
over.
It seems that the kids had discovered the box from the dustbin
and were now arguing over who had actually found it first.
It was sad to realise that there exist people who are rich
enough to throw around boxes full of sweets, and then there
are others who are bound to scavenge for food in the dustbins.
Naome
Syed Mohammadpur
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