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Star Diary

Newspaper Phobia

A few days ago I went to visit one of my uncles who is a retired civil servant. While we were having tea in the morning, the hawker delivered the newspaper. I thought that like a regular retired person, my uncle would be very interested in reading the newspaper. But on the contrary, he showed no interest. Later his wife informed me that he has not been reading newspaper for the last two years. He chose to do so because he does not want to begin his day with any negativity and most of the news published in a newspaper portrays negative and demeaning incidents. He also thinks that if someone continues to gulp such upsetting news on a daily basis, she or he would surely become a person of negativity. Although my uncle has logic behind what he says, I think it is not a good idea to shut one's eyes from the rest of the world just to avoid glimpses of negative events.

Shahriar Kabir Rana
International Islamic University Chittagong

No Respect for Rules

Afew days ago, I had gone to Dhaka just to attend the grand celebration of “Celebrating life-2010” with the theme 'Indomitable Bangladesh'. Notwithstanding some probable difficulties caused by political programmes, I had undertaken the journey. However, while enjoying the lively evening with a bouncy mood, I felt happy to see the patriotic sense of our people, especially that of our youth.

Following the jubilant evening, I headed out for my home by bus. Due to acute drowsiness, I soon fell asleep in the bus. Around two hours later when I woke up, I found the bus had stopped at a filling station. To wake up from my drowsiness, I got down and started walking around the station.

Meanwhile, I went to the fuel bank and began to talk to a staff member of the station. I came to know that the bus was being fuelled by CNG. I was staggered to a great extent since it was about 7 pm but the government has imposed constraint on selling CNG from 3 pm to 9 pm. I asked the vendor how they were doing such a deed that violated the government rules and regulations. He simply replied churi kore dicchi (that he was stealing)! Though his confession was candid and therefore commendable, it is really a matter of shame that all we do is think of ourselves disregarding the interest of our country itself.

Ashim Kumar Paul
Government Edward College, Pabna.

Intelligent Boys?

It was a Thursday evening when I was waiting for a bus in Gulistan. I was waiting at the tail end of a very long queue. Suddenly four young boys started to gather around the queue without maintaining the line. Finally when the bus came, two of those boys somehow managed to sneak into the bus and occupy four seats for themselves. Most of the seats in the bus were already taken and most of the people on the queue had to stand on the bus. I saw the four boys sitting in comfort while others, who maintained the decency of standing on the tiring queue, were struggling even to stand properly. Those young chaps were all laughing and gossiping about how they made fools of other people and the bus conductor. This was not the first time I saw young people feeling proud and happy for making others suffer by breaking rules and laws; they even boast around about how intelligently they succeed in wrong-doing. Breaking a queue might be a very minor thing, but if people, especially the young ones, keep getting away with it, it will eventually provoke them to commit more severe and serious crimes.

Md Rezaya Rabbi
University of Dhaka