Star Diary

SHOCKING!

The other day, I was shopping in Bashundhara City when I saw a woman with four small children. She looked tired and upset about something and being overweight, she seemed to have difficulty walking while she managed her children and pushed a large stroller. At one point, one of the little ones saw something that attracted his attention and ran off towards it. The mother looked absolutely livid when she caught up with him and scolded him loudly before she gave him two tight slaps. Surprisingly, the child did not cry which made me wonder if he was used to such treatment. Anyway, I was disgusted by this sight and appalled that no one else seemed to glance twice at what had just happened. What I don't get is why people have so many children if they can't manage to look after them and then take their frustrations out on these innocent little children. I find it cruel and uncalled for.

Tahsin Jamil
Dhaka

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INSULTED

Last week, I was going to Malaysia for my honeymoon with my husband. As we had been married only a few days before, I had not changed my marital status on my travel documents. When we arrived at the immigration desk, I went on my own while my husband waited in line. The immigration officer must have noticed we were together because he motioned my husband to come forward and asked if we wanted our immigration done together to which we agreed. Once he started going through our passports however, his attitude changed. He began to ask us how we knew each other, when we told him we were married he leered at us and asked why our documents said we were single. When we explained why, he asked to see our marriage certificate, which we did not think we needed to carry. After much questioning, about what we did and where we lived and what our parents did, he finally let us go through but we were both left feeling insulted and harassed. I really wish people in our country were not so narrow minded and unprofessional, but I doubt if this attitude and mindset will ever change any time soon.

Ayesha Sattar
Gulshan, Dhaka

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IGNORANT

Last week as I was walking back home from my classes with my father, we stopped at a reputed shopping mall in Dhanmondi. We entered a large Samsung showroom to buy one of the latest technological gadgets, the Samsung Notebook. The store was big and had 8 sales persons, all of them quite smart, and a senior officer from India who had come to monitor the showroom. After he left, my father asked one of the 8 sales people the difference between a Tab and a Notebook (Samsung Galaxy gadgets), and what made them have such a big difference in their prices. Surprisingly, the only answer he could come up with was the difference in their size! He could neither point out any technological difference nor could state any extra features. After some time, nearly all of the staff came to help, including their manager, but to our amazement, they could only come up with one difference, other than the size. As we came out of the shop, we couldn't do anything but laugh thinking about what had transpired. It is really surprising that the staff of such a big store of such a reputed company couldn't even answer such a simple question about their own product! It is really funny that people like them are so ignorant that they don't even know what they are selling.

Arshi Siddiqui
Dhaka

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