Star Diary

Blowing with the Wind of Change

A few weeks ago, my mother had decided to go to my village. I wasn't that excited at first because villages are easily inundated and have many more problems that we city folks find very difficult to cope with. However, as I had no choice, we set out in the morning and reached there in the evening. The village was okay but what actually caught my eyes was a small hut beside an open field. I went closer to the hut to take a look at it. The old and rusty place looked like it was abandoned a long time ago, yet I could hear people, in particular, kids talking. It was more of a chant, a chant of the letters of the English alphabet. Intriguingly, I entered the room and found that it was a school only with a few tables and some 11 children of different ages, wearing ragged and torn clothes. I decided to join them for one class. Though the room was congested, the time I spent there was tantamount to what people assume as time spent in heaven. I did study in a highly reputed school yet I had so much to learn from these children. The teacher was very helpful, but I could see the lack of resources in the place. Many children didn't have books and so had to share with others. The children were very enthusiastic to learn. After the classes were over, I got a chance to have a conversation with one of the students. I realised that they had so less to expect from life. I couldn't imagine a day in their shoes. Their life was an uphill struggle and it was really encouraging to see them make time for education amidst so much hardship. As time went by, I had to bid farewell to the teacher and left the school but I believe that a part of me will always be in that decrepit hut somewhere in my village where winds of change are blowing.

Tanha Kashfia Kate
Uttara Model Town
Dhaka

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Recreation Lost

A strange thing happened a couple of weeks ago. My friends and I were at a popular Sheesha Lounge in Banani when the police raided it. I had been visiting Sheesha lounges in Dhaka for a few years now and nothing like this had ever happened. The police came in and started accusing the owner and the staffs of mixing marijuana with the tobacco. They started questioning the customers too and searched people's bags, which I thought was highly improper and intrusive. At one point they threatened to arrest everyone and declared the place closed until further notice. From what we could see, they had found no evidence that anything illegal was happening at this place. Later, I heard that similar incidents had happened at other lounges and that all these places had been shut down. It makes me sad to think that one of the few means of recreation for us youngsters has been snatched away without adequate explanation. If they have knowledge of places serving marijuana with their sheesha why don't they find those specific spots and close them? Why target the innocent ones?

Peya
Dhanmondi, Dhaka