::: Star Weekend Magazine :::

Star Diary

Cowardly Criminals

That day after finishing a project work at a friend's house in Gulshan, I, along with my friend, decided to walk to the main road to get transportation. We were walking on a dark alley, when suddenly two muggers came and stood in front of us asking us to handover all our valuable belongings. While one of them was holding a knife in front me, the other grabbed my friend's neck. After few seconds, my friend started to feel uneasy as it was getting difficult for him to breathe as the hijacker was holding this neck with his full strength. Thus my friend tried to remove his hand from his neck.

My friend's hand hit the hijacker's face and he immediately ran away. Finding himself alone, the other one decided to disappear too. Even though it was a scary situation, we could not stop laughing.

Rahim A Sajwani
Gulshan, Dhaka

Overconfidence

This year I had met three candidates for IBA. I remember one was from Barisal and the other two were from Dhaka. The latter two from Dhaka were reputed to be brilliant students. However, the one from Barisal was average. So others used to tease him, saying “tui IBA te gash katte jabi naki” (are you going to cut grass in IBA)? The Barisal boy had to endure similar comments not just from the students but also from the teachers. But in spite of all this, I had never seen him giving up. On the contrary, before the exam the other two boys from Dhaka were flying in the sky. They were busy with their girl friends, confident of the eventual outcome.

After appearing in the exams, the Dhaka boys looked very confident. They were acting as if they were already selected. The boy from Barisal on the other hand was unsure. At the end we came to know that the one from Barisal got selected and the other two failed.

Kazi Fahad Abdullah
New Eskaton, Dhaka

LET'S GET IT RIGHT!

A few days ago, I was catching up on the semi-final of ICC World Cup 2003 between Australia and Sri Lanka. Australia was batting first and they were off to a flyer with a run rate of 6.9 in the first few overs. Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden were hitting all over the park until a ball went up and was caught in the slips. The bowler went up with a “Howzzat” and so did the other fielders. However, the umpire remained unfazed and signaled a 'Not Out' for Gilchrist. Then to the utter amazement of the commentators, the opposition team, his own teammates and the whole audience present in the stadium, Adam Gilchrist walked out of the crease and started his way back to the pavilion. The case was such that even technology could not have detected that Gilchrist was out and he would have easily got a 'Benefit of Doubt”. But Gilchrist showed the courage to stick to what is right.

We can take a note of Gilchist's example on the backdrop of this nation striding through rampant corruption even as it comes to organising the World Cup Cricket. Let's all make a move to curb corruption and a handy example would be to not hope for WC tickets from the black market this season. Each little gesture counts and is all it takes to make a difference.

Tasnim Jara
Viqarunnisa Noon College
Dhaka