The week in re(ar)view

Dhaka news

From rags to richer rags

Unbelievable! I've always heard of beggars who are actually quite rich but I had to do a double take about a month ago. I was walking by the Baitul Mukaram mosque during the Friday prayers when a car stopped at a corner ahead of me. An old man stepped out dressed in rags along with a young boy who carried a small pan and a walking stick. The two of them walked ahead as I trailed behind. He joined the queue of beggars lining the footpath and they all made way for him as if he was the CEO of a big company walking in on a sudden tour. And then he sat down in a corner with his pan, stick and young helper. Yep, that's a professional beggar. The weather was very hot and maybe the sun got to me and I was seeing things. Yep, that must be it.
By Ashraful Islam Sadat

Teen Central

Misunderstandings
“Why is she acting like this?”
“She's getting more and more distant everyday…”
The group of 14-year-olds was huddling together, anxious and slightly bitter at the same time. The subject of the conversation was sitting just a bit away from the main circle, engrossed in her cell phone writing some kind of sms novel it seemed.
“Ok there was a point when all of us were a bit obsessed with messaging and miss calling…but hello…you grow out of it you need to grow up.'

“It's like she doesn't need friends anymore. Well if that's the way she sees it, whatever, like I care…I don't know about you people.”

“Wait…maybe we should I don't know…talk…”
“Look! if she wanted to talk she would, she's the one who is being totally stuck up, not us…Oh my God! Did you see that! She just rolled her eyes at us, I have SO had it with her attitude!'

“Why do i get the feeling that you're trying to push me away...”

Just a few meters away, she sat cross legged, heads down playing snake, but her mind wasn't in the game and a million thoughts were rushing through her head.

'There it is again, the incessant whispering and the queer looks. I don't get it, what did I do? Why are they ignoring me like this? Whenever anyone of them talks to me I can just feel that the words aren't said form the heart and the smiles are definitely fake. I thought we were friends, friends aren't supposed to treat each other like this. All this is too much, even at home Ammu is suspecting me and making my life miserable, on the other side he isn't exactly being a sweet heart! And now I have to deal with my 'friends' and their crap!”

And she looked up and rolled her eyes.
Teens are falling victim to misunderstandings that originate form something very small, but turn into something so serious that it can actually destroy years of friendship. First reason for such incidents is assumptions. You see we the teens believe ourselves to be wiser than we really are. We make assumptions, which actually believe in, so to us they do not stay as assumptions …they become facts. We form opinions, make judgments and arrive at conclusions from these assumptions which we never even got around to reconfirming. That brings us to the second point, the only way to actually establish assumptions made, especially about a person and particularly if s/he is a friend, is to talk it out. Try to see things from her point of view, because come on…if we all have been friends for so long at least owe the person a chance to explain and what we think about her behaviour. The problems that concern the person are often very accurately identified, but what's the point if she never hears about them. How is she supposed to correct those faults? It serves little or no purpose carrying out such wise analytical conversations behind her back if we wanted them to be solved. So ultimately a sort of grudge grows between the individual and her circle of friends.

So people talk out your problems, reconfirm your facts and ask for explanations from your friends before arriving at some kind of ridiculous conclusion because allowing misunderstandings to ruin friendships is just very tragic.

By Midnight Maiden

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Steve Irwin missed
This is in response to the article about Steve Irwin. I want to thank RS from the bottom of my heart for taking the initiative to write down that article in memory of an amazing environmentalist. I was and still am one of the biggest fans of Steve Irwin. He inspired me when i was a kid to love animals. He was my idol. His daredevil acts have amused and amazed most teenagers if not all. His death was without any doubt an eternal loss to science and the Crocodile Hunters series. I just hope his works are recognized by everyone. People like Steve Irwin are born once in a blue moon. RIP! Thanks to RS once again.
Aashna
We at RS miss the crazy dude also.

Kill Tareq
The famous Tareq wrote an extremely awesome article on Himesh Reshammiya last Thursday and though the rock singer would have slaughtered the renowned writer if the former had read this article, the article was really worth it. By the way, Chinee Chor, thanks a lot for the article on the "Boys in pandemonium". I appreciate the writer who had written the piece on the movie "Miami Vice". I could not understand what the term meant completely in one of the Sheldon's books, so this thing helped. Best wishes for more ingenious articles
Sana