::: Star Weekend Magazine :::

Star Diary

Recharged and Overcharged

The other day I was looking for a Phone-Fax shop to recharge my cell phone account. Noticing a shop with a banner (Flexiload, Easyload and Telecharge here) I entered and found there quite a gathering. After waiting a while, the shopkeeper asked me the telecommunication company's name and my cell number. After noting down the number, he inquired about the amount I wanted to recharge. I said I needed ten taka.

He wrinkled his eyebrows and fiercely looked at me. He said Dosh taka (ten taka) was not recharged here, but if anyone insisted, then he had to pay 11 taka. Astounded, I asked him about this exception, but he simply refused to explain the anomaly to me. I tried to remind him that every mobile operator in Bangladesh permitted recharging account from 10 taka to 10,000 without any extra charge.

Ignoring the point he merely replied that this was the rule. He also told me that if I was not interested, I might choose not to recharge. I had no other alternative and considering my emergency as well as inability of recharging more than 10 taka, I had to compromise with him without sparing a single word more by paying the amount he demanded.

Md Toufequr Rahman
Govt College, Kushtia

NAPPING AT WORK

Afew days ago, I was assigned a duty by the management to co-ordinate with a colleague of mine. The job was very important. So I intended to be very diligent and committed to oversee the successful operation of the task. My partner was a young boy, about 25 years of age and I thought that he would be bustling with the energy that comes so naturally with youth.

The very day I was assigned the task, I went all over the city struggling against the traffic jam and the power cuts to finish my work. In the meantime, I was under the delusion that my partner was doing the same.

As I returned to the office, I saw my partner smiling happily, sitting in the chair, flirting with a girl and awaiting my return. I was a bit annoyed, still I handed him a tape for listening and asked him to write down the interviews recorded in the tape.

He put on his headphones and seemed to work very hard. My anger vanished as I saw that he was working with deep concentration burying his head deep into the computer and listening intensely to the tape.

Almost an hour passed, and another colleague came over and told me to check on my partner. Curious, I went over to his desk and to my utmost shock; I could hear the sounds of snoring. Then I realised that the deep concentration he had feigned before was only a preparation for his mid-day office nap!

Binoya Bhushon
Dhanmondhi

Hospital Nightmare

Afortnight ago, after several abortive attempts I managed to get a street lady with a broken leg admitted to a hospital. Once there, life became a nightmare. Don't the doctors see their attendants take money from people wanting to jump the queue in OPD? Don't they see the admission clerk inflating the admission fee? Don't they see the army of ayahs lurking in doorways, wards and corridors waiting to victimise patients? The ayahs refused to move my patient on to a trolley in the OT because she couldn't pay.

I, being a 60-year-old lady, had to climb on to a trolley, lift her over while they watched and laughed. Then there was the usual wheelie dealing outside the hospital while buying implants for the surgery. The salesman put me in touch with a doctor who told me this was the way to do it. I asked for a receipt and he asked how much he should write on it. My suspicion soared!!! Who was this man?

So I would like to request the management to ensure transparency in all levels of the hospital. There should be clear instructions as to how to procure surgical and medical necessities. The ayahs told me they weren't paid by the hospital so they had to earn from patients. Well, can there be a price list e.g. ten taka for lifting a patient or 20 taka for taking someone to the toilet, and so on? Then a record could be kept and the patients or their attendants could pay the bills. I don't want to deprive anyone of his or her rightful earnings.

Diane Jennings
Natore