Dhaka Diary

Unshed Tears

While passing by a restaurant in Dhanmondi, I was overwhelmed to see the behaviour of a family, encircling a table filled with sumptuous dishes. While the parents were feeding the children, a small girl wearing shabby clothes approached them, carrying her two-year-old brother and requested the parents to give them some food as they had not eaten anything for days. I was shocked to see the way those parents reacted on the request of the poor siblings who hurled abuses at them. The girl could do nothing but to step out. I gave her a fifty taka note and noticed the unshed tears in her eyes.

Imran Hasan Siddiqui
Maple Leaf International School

Lending a Hand

On the 15th of August, fifteen of our friends launched a 4-day campaign to collect money for the flood-affected people. We ran our campaign at Nasirabad, Sugandha and Khulshi housing society and at last we managed to collect Tk 46,364 for the victims of the devastating flood. Throughout our campaign, we came in contact with people who were extremely helpful.

On the last day of our campaign, while we were crossing the Probortok Mor towards Gol Pahar Mor, suddenly a tea vendor rushed to us and contributed Tk 500 for the flood victims. We were astonished since Tk 500 was probably a weekly profit earned by this tea vendor. It was all the more astonishing since we received nothing from a leading industrialist of the country living in Sugandha.

I often wonder why our country still remains underdeveloped although there are plenty of simple but noble and virtuous people like that tea vendor around. Can't we unite these people and do something good for our country?

Piash
Dept. of Law (1st year), CU

Burning Dreams and the Future

While staying at a lodging home for a few months to earn some money and work experience, almost every night, I would hear loud noises and cries coming from a house beside the one I was staying in. I came to know from my student, who I would teach, that there was a drunkard who lived in that house with his family. His daughter was a student of grade 10. The girl, according to my student, was extremely meritorious. Her mother, who worked as a maid, paid her school fees. In fact, the mother practically ran the whole family. The father, in turn, would get drunk every night and come back home screaming and shouting at everyone. One night, during one of these screaming sessions, I could not control myself and went to the drunkard's place to see for myself as to what was happening. I found heaps of books burning, while the drunkard was screaming out obscene words at the mother and daughter. The daughter stood speechless watching her books burn to ashes in front of her eyes. Besides her tears, there was contempt in her eyes, perhaps towards the society and maybe even the world around her.

Md. Maidul Islam
Department of Sociology, CU

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