Dhaka Diary

Tete-e-tete

A few days back, I was on my way for a job interview. I was in a great hurry but managed to get a CNG. There was a huge jam at the Gulshan-1 intersection so the CNG driver suggested taking a different route. There was a jam in the other route as well and I had a premonition that I would be late for my interview. Suddenly a policeman approached our CNG and cued the driver to hop out. I was bewildered assuming that maybe he was going to check the driver's license. As the CNG driver stood in front of him, he whispered something to the policeman's ear and they both walked away at a remote distance. I had no idea what the fuss was about. When I was at the end of my patience I saw the driver returning. As he started the engine guiltily I asked him why there was such a delay. He replied that he had to bribe the policeman because he didn't have a license.

I was dumb-founded because in that whole scenario both the policeman and the driver got away with their misdeeds but I was the one to lose my valuable time and put my life at risk in the hands of a driver who didn't even have the authority to drive.

Naome Syed, Mohammadpur

A while ago, one of my cousins fell ill and was admitted to the hospital. I had to stay there one night to look after him. There were three beds in a room and all the beds were filled with patients. One of the patients were there for the treatment of his backbone injury. He couldn't walk. What struck me as odd was the fact that the patient was smoking in the room in front of the other patient in the ward. This was causing a lot of discomfort for many a patient who could not say anything to him. He did it couple of times even in front of the nurses but no one said anything to stop him. Next day early in the morning when I was strolling in the hospital's corridor, I saw the man who was preparing breakfast for patients, who was also smoking inside the canteen. This is one of the most popular hospitals in the country and people have high expectations from it. So authorities should be more conscious about this.

Ahmed Onio,ULAB

Diary from Rajshahi

First time muggers

One day, when my friend and I were on our way home at about 6:40 pm, three muggers stopped us with daggers and demanded that we give them everything we had on us. We handed over everything we had, and upon checking my wallet, the muggers got mad with the fact that I had only Tk 15 inside. One of them screamed at me and said that this was the first time that they were mugging and all they could find was 15 taka. He then asked the other to stab me with the dagger. Upon this, the other mugger asked his friend as to why not he do the stabbing instead? This led to a quarrel amongst the muggers and my friend and I just sneaked away.

Md. Safiqul Raihan
Law and Justice (3rd Year), Rajshahi University

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