Dhaka Diary

An unscrupulous salesman

A few days back, I went to a leading sports store at the Elephant Road outlet. The store was filled with sports lovers, choosing different items and purchasing them. I finally got what I wanted and went over to the counter to pay for the items. As the salesman packed the things nicely and handed overthem to me, I noticed that he was not preparing any receipt for the items that I paid him for. "Can you make me a receipt please?" I asked. The salesman, very reluctantly got out his receipt book to make one. However, he was not keeping a carbon copy for himself. I figured that he had probably forgotten about it, but then I realised that he was doing that on purpose, probably to avoid tax. If the best sports store in the city performs in this dubious fashion, it would be a waste of time to expect the others to follow the leagal path.
Mehedi Hasan
Department of English
Jahangirnagar University

JMB phobia
After the recent bomb attacks by the JMB, a new kind of terror has emerged amongst the people. Whenever we see someone with a beard wearing a panjabi, we wonder if he is a JMB suicide-bomber. Last Friday I was travelling by bus to Nabinagar. The bus was packed with passengers. One of the passengers was a man with a long beard wearing a panjabi. He had a polythene bag with him. The journey was going on well until the bus stopped at a fuel-station near Jahangirnagar University. Along with some of the passengers, the bearded fellow got out of the bus to take a short break. Soon, the fuel tank was loaded and the driver asked everyone to get into the bus. Everyone except the man with the beard was present. So our driver decided to wait for a while. Five minutes went by, but the man was still not there. Suddenly, a young woman, who was sitting behind the missing passenger, cried out pointing to the bag and saying that the missing passenger was a JMB bomber and the bag had a bomb in it. Within seconds all the passengers got out of the bus, panic spreading among the passengers and the people in the fuel station. The fuel station had no phone and the nearest police station was a mile away. Just then the missing passenger arrived, apologising for his delay. He soon noticed that people were staring at him in a strange way. The driver approached him and asked him the reason for his delay and wanted to know what was in his bag. The man said that he had gone to the loo behind the fuel-station and that he had sweets in his bag. But it was after he brought his bag out to show to the passengers that they believed him and got into the bus to start the journey.
Sadat Shams
Maple Leaf Int. School

Humorous hawker

Last week I wanted to sell the old newspapers and magazines I had. So, I weighed them and called a hawker. His deal was TK10 and TK6 per kg for newspapers and magazines respectively. I accepted the offer but told him that the measurement will be done with my machine. The hawker stood up and began arguing that the machine weighs in kg, but his business weight is in kilograms and left my place. Some people have still not realised the difference between kilogram and kg!
Rehana Ahmed
Uttara Model Town

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