Star Diary

Need for Open Spaces

A few days ago I was going to take my tuition classes. After getting off the bus, I had to walk for a few minutes to cross a lane to reach my destination. It was not a very busy road and a group of children were playing cricket on the narrow lane. There were plenty of multi-storied residential buildings all around, but there were no open grounds or fields for children to play and run around. The children were very lively, jumping around with joy and screaming every time the bat touched the ball. Suddenly, the ball hit a nearby glass window and shattered it to pieces. Immediately, the children left their bats and balls and ran away for their lives. The landlord got out of the house and screamed at the children. He rebuked them and also took away all the bats and balls. Since then, the children stopped playing there. For a growing child, an open ground or a field is very much necessary. Playing outdoors is very different and also healthier than playing computer games the whole day. Technology has kept us imprisoned inside our homes. To make everything worse, building developers do not think about building an open space alongside their regular structures. Our children should be encouraged, not only to study well and secure good marks but also grow up to be healthy citizens of the country.

Mohammad Azam Khan
University of Chittagong
Chittagong.

Criminals of the Country

The other day, I was passing by the Science Laboratory signal near the bicycle shop. I noticed many rickshaw-pullers resting on their rickshaws in the terrible heat. Suddenly out of nowhere, a traffic police appeared and started hitting the rickshaws with a stick in his hand and shouting at the rickshaw-pullers to clear the area. Instead of moving away, the rickshaw-pullers started giving money to the traffic police, as if he was some kind of a piggy bank. This shocked me greatly. For how long will our law enforcers misuse their powers?

Raiyan Islam Oronno
European Standard School
Dhaka

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