Star Diary

To Get 500, Lose 525

The other day a friend of mine went to a government bank at Motijheel to get three five hundred partly torn notes altered by new notes. However, Some female employees in charge there were pretty remiss concerning their duties. While entering the bank my friend found the place very chaotic. He waited quite sometimes standing in the queue, when his turn came he tried to communicate with the counter woman in charge, but he was not being paid any heed, since she was busy collecting the lipstick brand name from her other colleagues. However, after quite sometime the woman took the notes and gave a whimsical glimpse over the notes and then said that notes were not worthy of being although those notes were moderately clean and serial numbers on them were pretty conspicuous. After a while she referred to an outside source. As far as I know, to get any torn note exchanged is possible, if the note is not broken into more than two pieces and the serial number on it is readable. Now the point to be noted, why they didn't help him get the notes exchanged with new ones and why did they refer him to an outside source! It's because they have an illegal nexus with the people (altering torn notes for higher price) around that bank area, where getting a five hundred torn note altered will cost taka 25. People are adopting unfair means to make money. Something should be done to stop this.

Hasnat,
AIUB
Banani, Dhaka.

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Let's love them

He was sitting on the seat beside mine in the bus. He looked starved and too weak to hold the newspaper stack kept on his lap. The boy was not more than eight. I felt bad for him and helped him hold the stack of newspapers. I asked him his name; 'Bellal Hossain,' he answered. I enquired about his parents and he said his father had left them and married another woman; what his mother does, he had no idea but he said he sometimes saw unknown men coming to his mother and they (the children) had to leave the house when those men came. Bellal is third among his five siblings; he has no clue of his age; he lives in a slum in Kamlapur and works as a hawker for his living. Whatever insignificant profits he makes, he gives them to his mother to help raise the family. He wants to go to school but cannot; he wants to study but he cannot read. He asks the other hawkers to read the headlines to him so that he knows what's going on. He has to run between vehicles during traffic signals to sell newspapers, most of the time, risking his safety. Despite his age, many customers fool him and do not pay the money, many even torture him. But Bellal and children like him are hanging in there, to survive, to make their ends meet, unsure of their future. But they are only children. If we can't help them in any other manner, can't we just love them? Smile at them when we talk? Treat them nicely while we are interacting with them?

Bipul K Debnath
Dhaka College, Dhaka

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In need is Indeed

With the advent, development and implementation of information technology in the banking system, it is now a matter of few seconds to withdraw money if a person has an ATM (Automated Teller Machine) card. Along with the success of the ATM card, many, like me, undergo some undesirable troubles in extracting money from the booth in some bleak moments that eclipse the growing status of this crucial facility.

It was mid-December when my friends invited me to join a recreational excursion in Bandarban, St. Martin and Cox's Bazar. As an ATM card holder of a reputed private bank, I decided to load the expenditures on my ATM card for safe transfer.

Following a dreary journey, I arrived at my friend's dormitory in Dhaka University where the rest of my friends gathered to set off. Since there was no ATM cash point in the hill tract district Bandarban and the coral island St. Martin, I decided to withdraw cash from my ATM card. Before the beginning of our journey to Bandarban via road transport, one of my friends and I watched out for an ATM booth. Within walking distance from the bus station, we found our looked-for cash booth. But we were unfortunate, as we were unable to withdraw our cash due to network-jam. Since there was no cash point nearby, we were, tragically, in a real quandary over the difficulty. Fortunately, other friends retained their money with them and we could ward off some probable hurdles during our tour. If money cannot be withdrawn in needed time, why do the authorities of the banks pledge their support for withdrawing money any time around 24 hours?

Ashim Kumar Paul
Government Edward College, Pabna