Star Diary

The Shameless Shoplifter

Just the other day while I was shopping at Agora, surprise and astonishment got the better off me. This teenage boy not more than 17 was caught red-handed by the manager, while he was shoplifting. He was about to steal a Ponds Fair White and a Olay cream worth one thousand taka in total. We assumed it was for his girlfriend, as when the manager seized his phone to call his family to inform about the matter, he said 'please give me back my phone. My girlfriend will call.' The manager was much appalled by his attitude. He quickly called his older brother from the boy's callers list. His older brother wasn't surprised to hear the incident and begged the manager to let him go. He said something like 'kick him, slap him, but don't take him to the police. It will fix nothing.' The brother got emotional and said how they were financially disabled. On that note, the manager who was a kind-hearted man let the boy go. Although the boy was of my age, there was a gulf of difference in the way we were brought up. I think, he wasn't given proper education, was brought up in an unpleasant environment and ultimately he turned to stealing.

Sarah Sayeed Gazi
Scholastica school
Dhaka

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Running Gentlemen

The other day while I was walking home, I noticed something very unusual. I saw around ten to fifteen well dressed men, who came running from the far end. At that moment, I could think of no reason for their running, since they were not protesting for anything nor were they running any advertisement campaign. When I saw one of the men coming back, I became so impatient that I stopped him and asked him the reason. I was surprised to hear that they were running after a bus because while they were traveling on that bus, it had stopped and the driver requested them to give a push. Not being egoistic, they all decided to help. Once the bus started running, the bus driver accelerated at a full speed and left them behind and did not even returned their fare, thus they were running after the bus in order to get hold of it, but none of them succeeded.

Rahim Abu Ali Sajwani
North South University
Dhaka

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Religion Vs Public Right

Two nights back returning home from work, I noticed loud music from a stereo playing somewhere near my apartment. Hoping that it would stop by mid-night, I finished my usual night chores and went to bed. However the music continued. At around 3:30 in the morning, trying in vain to get some sleep in the continuous beat of the stereo, I called our night guard and asked if anyone in our apartment was playing the loud music. When he said no, I called Dhanmondi Model Thana and requested them to take action about the incident. After half an hour, when the music did not stop I called the Thana again and asked whether they took any action. The duty officer told me, that their men had already gone to the field however they might not be able to take any action if the music had anything to do with a religious festival. Tired and frustrated, I too had no choice but to hang up and wait for the devout to shut down his/her stereo, so that I could get some sleep.

Amantha Haque
Dhanmondi
Dhaka