Star Diary

Photo: Anisur Rahman

Time or Life

The other day I was going home from school as usual. We're standing at a traffic signal near Banani when I noticed that another car, not abiding by the red signal, rushed past us. I looked away with a sigh noticing the wrongdoings of the driver. All of a sudden, I heard a loud screeching noise. I opened the window to see what happened. The car bumped into a jeep and rolled across the lane. Instantly, it caught fire and the windows broke shooting bits of glasses around. Within moments, people gathered around the car to see if there was anyone inside. Hurriedly, two men with severe injuries were taken to the hospital while one woman was announced spot dead. Such accidents are happening everyday in our lives. May be the driver was driving fast to reach some place in time. Even then, we should not try to save time where it can cost us our lives. It's high time we started abiding by the traffic rules. After all, nothing is more important than one's own life.

Nusrat Jahin Angela
Banani, Dhaka

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Going Slack in Government Office

A few days ago before Eid , I went to Dhaka Education Board to get my revised HSC certificate. I went to the counter but the clerk said that the certificate had not been sent to him yet. He asked me to go to the certificate branch to collect it and then get back to him. I went there and the certificate writer who was a young man said that my certificate had not been written. He asked me to come an hour later. When I made it there an hour later, he told me that he was busy then and it would be better if I came the next day. But actually he was chatting with one of his colleagues who was a woman. As I requested him again, he looked very irritated. Then angrily he said, “Can't you see that I'm busy?" I went out from there and collected it later. I'm sure that we common people do not expect this type of slack behaviour from a government official.

Shams Sourav
Mirpur, Dhaka

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Self-realisation

A week ago, while climbing down the stairs absent-mindedly at an office building other than mine, I slipped and bumped down a couple of steps. A young woman, probably an office help working in the building, rushed to my side and asked if I was okay and needed any help to get up. Although I wasn't hurt that much, the sudden fall left me a little unsteady. I thanked her and declined her help politely. Yet, she sat beside me holding my hand throughout the entire period while I was recovering from the shock. I was grateful for her presence. Later, on the way to my office, I kept on brooding about the matter. I asked myself whether I would have shown the same level of kindness to a total stranger if I was in that woman's place. I searched my memory and found that as a lady from the upper-strata of the society, I had never offered any help to any stranger. I always preferred to keep my distance and avoid responsibility, terming accidents around me as unwanted nuisance. I wonder whether my attitude is a derivative of my social status or just a personality trait.

Mir Katherine Ahmed
Uttara, Dhaka