Star Diary

Drunken Drivers

It was a hot sunny afternoon. My grandmother and I were waiting for a CNG auto-rickshaw to get home from a bank. We signaled several CNGs but none of them seemed to notice that we were calling them. As I kept looking, an auto-rickshaw pulled over in front of us. The driver asked, "Where to?” As we jumped into the vehicle, we thought that we were exceedingly lucky.

But after a while we noticed that the driver was going too fast and was a little reckless. Out of sheer fear, we told him to slow down, but in reply, he said some of the grossest things I've ever heard in my life. We could not even tell him to stop, because his behaviour seemed very odd to us. Then we understood that the driver was drunk and didn't have any control over himself. I was so horrified that I doubted if I would be able to get out of the vehicle in one piece. We started to pray to the Almighty for our safe return home. Luckily, nothing happened. We reached home unharmed. But a question was hovering in my mind: isn't there anything the government can do to keep the drunkard drivers off the road?

Md Rezaul Karim Shahik
Government Tolaram College
Narayanganj

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Value of Teaching

After passing MSC from a reputed public university, one of my friends applied for a job in a school that followed national curriculum. After passing a written test she was called for a viva voce exam. The examiners told her that she was selected for the post and offered her a salary of only Tk 3,000 per month. My friend was terribly shocked at the irrational offer and said that she would lose interest in the job in a few months if the salary was so poor. However, the examiners offered a ready answer: "Teaching is a noble profession. The question of money, when compared with the nobleness of teaching, should be a minor consideration." My friend was further shocked to find that the people, who talked about the nobleness of teaching, didn't hesitate to demand hefty tuition fees from students. If teachers are paid such low salaries, how can we expect them to be good?

The general picture is that school authorities take a lot from students and don't pay their employees accordingly. It should also be noted that it is the poor salaries that make private tuitions a necessity to the teachers. The schools have become a source of enormous profit for the owners.

Mousumi Islam
Chittagong

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Inconsiderate drivers

	Photo: Manan Morshed

A few days ago, I was going to school to sit for an exam. There wasn't much traffic on the streets at that time. Our car stopped at a traffic light. A couple of other cars were standing in front of our car. At the green light, the car in front of us hit another car apparently for no reasons. It was evident that one of the drivers lacked the skills needed to drive. What's worse is that the drivers got out of the vehicles and started yelling at each other in the middle of the street. The street was completely blocked by their cars. However, the drivers, who were quarrelling, didn't pay heed to the suffering of people who were stuck in the middle of the street.

Within moments, a long tailback was formed. I was getting late for my exam. Finally, a traffic police came to our rescue and told the quarrelling drivers to clear the street first, and settle the matter on the side of the street. Many inconsiderate people do these things and create bottlenecks in busy streets. Some patients even lose their lives on their way to the hospital for traffic jam.

Maeesha Ryaan
Motijheel Ideal School, Dhaka

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