::: Star Weekend Magazine :::

Dhaka Diary

A lesson learnt
It was a chilly winter morning. The streets were almost empty, even though it was nearly 8AM. Finally I got a rickshaw, but I was already late for class. So I told the rickshaw-puller that if he could take me to my destination (Iqbal Road) in 10 minutes I would pay him twenty bucks, while the usual fare was twelve. But the man's answer really struck me. He said, “Bhai, I don't want to be overpaid. I will take you safely to your destination and that is my Farz. If I hurry and God forbid if we face an accident, something terrible might happen to either of us. So isn't it better to be a few minutes late than risk our lives? Just for greed we cannot make a mistake for which we have to repent the rest of our lives.” The truth in the man's statement could not be ignored. I was really amazed by the man's wisdom and learned a very valuable lesson from him -- 'life was more precious than time'.
Sadat Shams
Maple Leaf Int. School

Woman snatcher
Two of my friends and I had gone to New Market to buy caps. After climbing the stairs to the first floor, we saw a crowd in a corner. We were curious and went up to the crowd to see what was happening. We saw a woman weeping in the centre of the crowd. People were asking her many different questions. I figured that the woman's purse or cell phone was lost or had probably been snatched. I asked a man to be sure of the situation. He replied that she had snatched a cell phone and then got caught by the owner. I was stunned to come face-to-face for the first time with a woman snatcher.
Onio
University Laboratory

The wrong way of teaching
One evening I was walking with my two younger sisters. Suddenly, we met with an elderly person. He lives in our area and seems quite educated. He has a long white beard and is probably in his late sixties. He stopped us in the middle of the road and very dramatically asked one of my sisters, "Why are you different?" My sister, was clearly puzzled. Then the man tried to clarify and asked her why she wasn't wearing hijab. My sister and I wear hijab but my other sister does not, though I think that she is probably more religious than both of us. The man made us stand on the road and gave a long speech on hijab, the reason why we should wear it and the benefits of wearing it. Whoever was passing by was staring, embarrassing us even more. Finally after 15 minutes he let us go, to our relief. My sister was furious. The intentions of the man may have been good but his way of going about it was not. His speech made no impression on my sister and, instead, she doesn't want to walk around the place now in fear of meeting him again. In our society, many good ideas and lessons are taught in the wrong way and are thereby lost on the young ones.
Misty
Dhaka University