Star Diary

Felon Photographer
Recently, my sister who lives in the USA, was visiting Dhaka. Back home after a few years, every little thing took her fancy and she would take photographs of everything that she did. While driving around one day, she was passing the US embassy in Baridhara. Excited at seeing the embassy and fluttering flag of the country she has been living in for the past several years, she took a picture of it from the car. Instantly, the embassy security and, soon after, the police showed up. They asked her to get out of the car, made her stand on the street and interrogated her like a criminal. Later, they came to our house and checked her identification and other documents. Luckily, nothing else happened, though the police did threaten her by saying that if she had not had a Canadian passport they would have taken her to the police station. My sister was shocked by the whole affair. Perhaps she did not realise, living within the USA, how insecure Americans feel without. In her defense, all she could say was that there was no sign prohibiting photography and that she had not thought it was a crime for which she should be treated like a criminal.
KAT, Gulshan

A Magical 'Cure' for Diabetes

Like other years, this year too my friends and I went to our remote village to celebrate Ekushey February, International Mother Language Day. We are dispersed around the country but try to meet up on special occasions. My mother, who suffers from severe diabetes, was very happy to have me home and made a variety of winter cakes, etc. I was home for two days and when on my way back I asked my mother if she needed anything from the city. After some time she asked me to get her a 'diabetes recovery chain' if I found a less expensive one. I had no idea what it was. Then she told and even showed me a chain that two of my aunts had bought for Tk. 6,000. It was a product being promoted by a marketing company in our country boldly advertising the hidden magic of the chain among naïve people, taking advantage of their simplicity, cheating them with false propaganda. I explained to my mother that the chain did not have any power to cure diabetes. I don't understand how in today's world with modern science and technology how these companies can make such claims and why the authorities do not take any measures to prevent them.
Md. Azam Khan
Department of Mathematics
University of Chittagong

Smoking
on the Bus

A few days back, my mother and I were on the way to our village by bus. After crossing a few miles, an elderly man stood up on the bus and started smoking. Some of us are not comfortable with people smoking around us. For this reason, we requested him not to smoke on the bus. Despite our request, he did not listen. He was a stubborn man. He even threw the unfinished portion of it on the floor. We told the helper of the bus about this as the lighted cigarette could have started an accident. Such accidents do happen and thus people should be careful when they smoke and avoid it in public places where it may cause discomfort to others.
Mohammed Jamal Uddin
Panchlish, Chittagong

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