::: Star Weekend Magazine :::

Star Diary

Drug Addiction
One evening I was reading a book beside the railway lines under the shade. All of a sudden, I noticed two young boys, wearing shabby clothes, taking ganja. I pretended as if I had not noticed anything for a while. After a while when they came beside me, I saw them sharing money amongst themselves. I figured that these boys were day labourers and were splitting the wages that they had received that day. When I asked them why they were taking drugs, they said that they were doing so to reduce the pain they were feeling in parts of their bodies. This is a usual practice for them since they have nothing else to do. That particular day, they had gone to collect rejected bottles, metal, broken glass etc from the drains and they got injured. Consequently, they took drugs so that they would not feel the pain. I could not do much but just listen to them in shock.
Rtr.Biplob
Rotaract Club of Chittagong University

Inside a Hospital
A few days ago I had to have an operation at the hospital. There was a tumour in my left upper arm for the last three years and I had to get rid of it. It was a very simple one but my parents' worried face made me rush to the doctors to have an operation as early as possible. I was asked to come to the hospital on a Saturday morning. I went, waited for the call, and entered the big passage of the operation theatre from where I saw the busy doctors performing various types of operations on their subjects. It was the OT of Rangpur Medical College Hospital. I was lucky enough to have a very efficient and skilled group of doctors who operated on me with great care and sincerity. But I could not but think myself as an unfortunate creature witnessing some incidents, which do not suit a hospital. My doctor asked me to lie down on a bed, which was stained with drops of blood from the previous operation. They did not change the bed sheets before asking me to lie down. To make matters worst, they covered my body with a piece of cloth while the operation was taking place. I do not know how long they kept that piece of cloth unwashed in the hospital. It was so stinky and foul smelling that I was about to vomit. How can a hospital use such a piece of cloth to cover a patient's body? Whom can I ask my questions to?
Md. Hasan Iqbal
Keranipara
Rangpur

A Beggar's Woes

I was passing through Dhanmondi Road 27 on the way home by car at around 6.30 PM when suddenly something caught my eye. There was a small gathering of people on the pavement watching a most bizarre spectacle. An elderly disabled woman, a beggar no doubt, was crawling across the road and in the process was holding up the multitude of incoming vehicles that usually ply the roads at that time of the day. But what was actually disturbing about all this was the fact that a traffic policeman was glaring down angrily at the poor lady and instead of helping her cross the road and let the vehicles pass by, was swearing and shouting at her! All that the poor lady could do was to look up into the face of the standing and glaring policeman. The nearby crowd was helpless, as they didn't want to get on the wrong side of the policeman. Just then, the car moved along but I couldn't help thinking about the misfortune of the woman and her encounter with a policeman, who was ignorant of his civic responsibilities.
Wahid Tamzid Khan
Dhanmondi Tutorial