Dhaka Diary

Are we living in a civilised society?
A few days ago, on a hot day I was busy preparing an assignment on the PC when at around 11:45 am the electricity went off. Used to this situation by now, I waited patiently for it to come back. After four hours of waiting, I called the Electricity Supply Office and asked what was wrong. The person on the other line very aggressively said that I would have to wait till it got fixed. However, when I wanted to know what exactly happened, he screamed out an answer that they didn't have a particular cable that would repair the problem. I lost my temper as well and asked why it was taking them more than four hours to fix it. He used very abusive language and actually used slang to emphasise on his reply. "Betee", he said "tui betee amago kaj sikhabi?" (You chit of a girl. How dare you teach us how to do our job?) This is probably one of the most insulting events that I have experienced. How could someone speak to another person in this way?
Fardousi Azim
Manarat International University

The legal businessmen
I was on my way to Nilkhet last Thursday to buy some books. I was walking on the footpath beside New Market. It was very jerky as the footpath was bordered by various mobile-shops of cookeries, clothes and other cheap goods. I was accompanied by one of my cousins. As we were passing a CD shop, a man came running towards me and insisted that I bought a CD. He openly said what the CD contained and urged me to buy it. I was shocked that this person was asking me to buy pornography openly on the streets! I heard these people had great influence on the area. But what was more surprising was that a police was having tea in a nearby makeshift shop! How can these illegal businesses be stopped when law enforcers are also involved in them? And whom can we complain to about these shops, which have bad influence on young minds?
Mahinur Rahman Tanvir
Maple Leaf Int. School

Buy one, get two free!
Nowadays, we see free offers everywhere. Buy a SIM card, get free talk time, buy an apartment and get TV, VCD, free. Buy a cow and get a goat free and so on. It seems people are more interested in free things than in the original! Here, I want to describe an interesting event that happened with me a few days ago. The other day I had gone to a general store near my residence to buy a jar of Horlicks. When the shopkeeper handed me a free soap with the jar, I was very happy with this unexpected gift. When I was happily inspecting the soap I found a message written in small letters that said "Get a free soap case with this soap". I demanded my free soap case from the shopkeeper and he reluctantly handed me that as well. I think the salesman was as surprised as I wanted to see a free soap case with a free soap! If we only we had honesty and patriotism free with our politicians!
Mohammed Sohel Hara
Olympia Palace Restaurant

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