::: Star Weekend Magazine :::

Star Diary

Expert Biker…

A few days ago, a friend of mine called me and informed me that he was now a proud owner of a motorbike. As he lives very close by, I decided to pay him a visit that very day before I returned home from work. When I went to his place I found him sitting on his bike and adjusting his helmet. He noticed me and invited me to take a ride with him.

Not totally convinced about my friend's driving skills, I told him that I would rather be a spectator than a passenger. He sensed my doubts about his skills as a biker and took serious offence. He bragged that he was an expert biker and had been driving motorbikes for the last ten years. I told him that he must demonstrate his skills before I was going on a ride with him.

Offended at my doubts, he started his bike to prove his worth. As soon as he started off, my fears proved true enough. He fell on the ground along with his motorbike with a loud thud. Without his helmet, he would have been spending days in the hospital but fortunately he only escaped with a bruised knee. Youngsters with these levels of 'expert' biking skills should have their licenses cancelled and strict actions should be taken by authorities to prevent potentially deadly accidents.

Ornob
Eskaton, Dhaka

Over the last two decades, a degenerate and cruel culture has penetrated into our society in the form of “ragging”. Since last year, I've been studying in a prestigious international university. Since our campus is outside Dhaka in Boardbazar, Gazipur, almost all the students prefer staying in the residential halls during the weekdays. Though not as extreme as in the halls of public universities, the disease of ragging has infected our university as well.

Last year, all of us freshmen got humiliated, verbally abused and ill-treated by our seniors, according to whom it was a way of 'creating a bridge' between the seniors and the juniors. Some of them even recorded our humiliation in their cell-phones. This year, sadly, it was déjà vu for the freshmen, and this time many of my own batch-mates, who seem to have forgotten the trauma we went through last year, have actively participated in ragging. I really don't know how by misbehaving with the juniors and giving them a hard time in their first few days of the university life we can gain their respect, nor do I know what pleasure someone gets through this sick form of 'entertainment'. Though the university authority has been trying hard to stop ragging, students still find out ways to do this. I think it is high time that we as a nation look into this matter as a national issue, and stop the menace of ragging before it goes out of hand.

Aabeer
Madhubhazari, Dhaka

Lack of Common Sense

I have to use the road in front of Bashundhara city to reach my office everyday. Had there be a ranking of the busiest road of Dhaka city, this road would definitely make to the top ten. The left lane of the road has been separated with dividers so that vehicles, going left towards Farmgate do not have to stop in the traffic signal. Irritably, vehicles that want to go straight towards Hotel Sonargaon or right towards Bangla Motor crowd at the intersection, making it impossible for the left-going vehicles to pass. The inter city buses add to the misery by halting at that very intersection even though a large sign says “Ekhane Bus Thamibena” (Buses will not stop here). The CNGs that expect to pick up passengers visiting Bashundhara City also park in that narrow left lane. The left lane meant to make the passage of the left-going vehicles smooth, has instead become a nuisance for the traffic controllers. Had all of us been blessed with a little more common sense, the traffic situation of our country could have been far less worse than it is now.

Mir Manna
Panthopath, Dhaka