Star Diary

A Surreal tale of getting a passport

A friend of mine, recently, practically went through hell trying to get a passport issued for himself. According to the process, he deposited a fixed amount of 3,000 takas, filled up a form and returned it to the authorities. He was then given a token with the delivery date. However, when my friend went back to the passport office on the particular date to collect his passport, the authorities could not find it. He was then asked to go to the testing room for his passport. He went there and told them that his passport could not be found. The officers in the testing room started their investigations regarding his passport by searching huge logs of files. After about an hour, they finally found out that his passport number was ripped from the form. He finally got his passport. After that, he found a huge spelling mistake in his father's name, which greatly upset him. The authorities apologised for the error and explained to him that to err is human. They suggested that he could fix the problem if he would pay 2,000 takas more even though it was not his mistake. After hours of argument, he finally left the office. The next day, he met the passport officer (Magistrate) regarding this matter. After a half hour talk the officer told him to pay 500 taka to get a new passport. The next day after a long wait he finally got his new passport. Why is it so difficult to get the easy things done quickly in this country?
Foqrul Islam Munna
Jagannath University, Dhaka

An Emotional Fool

While returning home from private tuition classes, a young student of mine paused for a while to send a text message to his friend. All of a sudden, a poor man approached him and asked him for help. It seems that his mother was in the hospital and was suffering from brain cancer. He needed a lot of money for the treatment. That's why he was roaming about with his sister's gold ornaments to sell, but did not know where to do so or how to go about it. My student informed him to go to the New Market and try to sell his ornaments there. Instantly, another man came on the scene and was eager to assist the helpless man by helping him sell the ornaments. However, the helpless man would not believe or trust him. As a consequence, my student gave him 120 takas and the third person gave the helpless man around 8,000 takas as a bondage. To make things all the more solid and believable, my student was convinced to give his cell phone as well to the helpless man as bondage. By the time my young student realised what had happened, the two miscreants had disappeared. This proves that by taking advantage of people's emotions, they can be mugged without the use of force.
Mohammed Abdul Kader Biplob
Chittagong College, Chittagong

A Dose of Humour

It was a busy weekday afternoon and I was on a bus, which was heading towards Motijheel from Gulshan. Beside me was an elderly gentleman who for some reason was annoyed with someone (or perhaps with everyone) and grumbling to himself. After a while, a young man got on the bus. He was a ticket checker and was checking to see if everyone had a ticket. He found a woman who did not have a ticket and spoke to her in a stern voice about how it was not moral to travel on the bus without a ticket and so on. The elderly passenger beside me was listening to all this, when suddenly he, in a stern voice himself, asked the ticket checker who he was. The ticket checker became dumbfounded and stuttered out that he was the ticket checker. Hearing the answer the older man pounced on him with one question after another. How were the passengers to know that he was a ticket checker? Where was his uniform? Hearing this, the ticket checker was shocked but the elderly man kept on going with the interrogation and asked him to show his ID. He also berated him for misbehaving with the lady. Seeing the anger of the elderly man the poor ticket checker was taken aback and hastily he got down from the bus. In spite of the one-sided shouting on the bus, the passengers could not help chuckling at the old man's behaviour.
Mohammed Sohel Hara
Adamjee, Dhaka

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