| Dhaka Diary
A Good Deed
 The other day I along with my elder sister were sitting in the car, waiting for the signal to turn green at the Bangla Motor crossing. As I looked outside my car window I saw that the footpath was jam-- packed with pedestrians trying to cross the road. That's when an old man caught my attention. He was trying to step on the road from the footpath (the edge of the footpath was quite high). For quite some time, no one was helping him. Just then, a middle-aged man came up from behind him. He seemed to be in a big hurry. He stepped on the footpath and was rushing away when he suddenly stopped and stepped back up on the footpath. He caught hold of the old helpless man and helped him to step down. Making it seem like an everyday task of his, almost immediately he went off his own way. It was indeed a very small incident, but I had a nice warm feeling inside me when I watched the whole scene taking place in front of me. If we try to help each other in this way, then can't we imagine a better Bangladesh in the near future?
Nishat Rashida
Department of Architecture
Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology
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The other day I was walking to school past a tall building. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise from above. It was glasses breaking and I looked above to see what it was. To my horror I saw broken panes of glass falling from the fifth or the fourth floor of the building towards me! I froze on my heels. I heard bystanders around shouting at me to move from there. Luckily enough, I did not have to move as the glass fell on the ground barely missing my head. The panes broke in shards around my heels. I was completely horrified as I imagined what would have happened to me if the pointed panes of glass had hit me instead! Now, I get scared while walking by any tall buildings. There should be laws prohibiting people from throwing objects from their windows, no matter what they happen to be.
Sujash Islam
Ideal School & College
Banasree, Rampura, Dhaka
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A few days back, I was having a conversation with my brother about the various articles that people write on CNG drivers, cabbies and rickshaw pullers. Since we were on a rickshaw ourselves at that time, going home in the early afternoon, the rickshaw puller heard what I was saying and said that he had a lot to say regarding his passengers as well. Once he had a woman and her children on his rickshaw. The woman would not stop screaming about how she had to go home, feed her sister-in-law and bear her mother-in-law's torture! Then there was another woman who was telling her son about how insensitive his father was towards them, because he would not provide them with a car and expected them to use the rickshaw at all times. The rickshaw puller himself was robbed the other night, he told us. The two lads who were robbing him admitted that they stole and robbed for fun and pleasure. Well, that night, the rickshaw puller had to starve his family because of their pleasure. Almost immediately, his expressions changed into a wry grin, when he spoke about how two couples fighting and breaking up on his rickshaw on Valentine's Day. When my brother and I finally reached home, we could not help laughing at what we had to listen to for the last twenty minutes!
Mohua Morshed
Maple Leaf Int. School
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