What Has The World Come to

I have the other day my mother was getting infuriated due to all the work that was left undone. She had already informed a friend of hers to lend in some extra help.

Luckily her friend was there with an old lady who claimed to be a housemaid at a place nearby.
The old woman could barely move and my mother was puzzled at her friend’s inconsiderate mentality as to bring the poor, old lady for work.

My mother told the old lady to leave for she could not hire her. The housemaid hesitated and requested my mother to let her stay.

When my mother asked her why she was so desperate, the old woman burst out crying, too hysterical to answer my mother’s queries.

While she was being consoled with a few soft words, a bowl of rice, and curry, she sighed and narrated the story of her two able sons who had married and thrown her out of the house.

The poor woman had nowhere to go and find for herself. My mother could not but wonder: is this? What do we teach our children, to grow up and forget their parents? What has the world come to?

A Little Adventure

I have Being a fourteen-year-old girl, ….city is sort of a haunted old castle for me according to my parents.

Well, that’s the way I feel about the city when my parents put myriads of restrictions on me being out after the evening, even with my friends, if not by myself.

I don’t blame them; the way crime is taking place bluntly and boldly under the daylight, who knows what can happen to this fragile girl little girl at night if she’s out there!

But part of being a teenager is to be disobedient to the rules imposed or being kind of anti-establishment or try to break the convention; again, that is the way I feel when my parents lecture about me not being loyal enough to the family.

Best short story a brick boy

So, hanging to my teenage attributes, a few days ago I decided to have a feeling of adventure. It was a long weekend and I had nothing to do.

None of my friends had time to hang out and none of my family members had time to cheer the awkward teenager in the house.

It was one or two am in the morning and my family was deep asleep. I came out of the apartment, took my bicycle from the parking lot, and went out to venture into the haunted castle.

It was fun! I was scared but it was thrilling. I saw a silent rather empty Dhaka city with no traffic or rush of thousands of people.

The air was fresher and didn’t smell of petrol or octane. A few vehicles roamed the highway; a few people were even racing with their glamorous cars.

No one bothered me or teased me; I guess no one could imagine that it was a girl on the bike! I roamed around for an hour and a half and came back to my room without capturing my attention!

My parents don’t know the event until now and unless they read this piece, there is no way they are ever going to learn about my little adventure.

Uncomfortable Attitude

 I went to take the photo for a visa I am applying for at a shop on …Road. I am usually accompanied by my mother for such errands, but she happened to be busy that day so I went alone.

When I walked into the store, they instructed me to go to the back room where photos were taken and asked me to freshen up.

When I walked in, I was surprised to see a young man sitting there already. I asked him if he was the photographer, but he shook his head and continued to watch me.

Feeling uncomfortable, I sat there waiting for the photographer. When he arrived he asked me to fix my hair etc which I did, while the other man watched.

Annoyed, I asked the photographer if it was necessary for him to be there after which he gestured to the man to leave.

As I settled down to take my photo, to my surprise and dismay, the man returned with two others who were just standing there leering at me! I was so upset I stopped the photographer and walked out of the store.

As I made my way to another place it made me sad to think how hard it is to be a woman in this country, to have to worry about safety and being made to feel uncomfortable and unsafe all the time. I wish the attitude of our people toward women in general would change.

Berserk Boys

A few days ago, an older brother of mine was going to attend a job interview at…. he recently completed his MBA from a private university and was increasingly looking for a job.

As the job vacancies are not sufficient compared to the growing number of job seekers, he, like others, became tense about his career.
Finally, he was called by a corporate house for a job interview. The day he was going for the interview via a bus, a set of students from a renowned college waved their hands to halt the bus to get in when the bus crossed the…flyover. However since the bus was a gate lock service, the driver overlooked their call.
Being infuriated, those students began to stone the bus. My brother was sitting beside the window of the bus and suddenly felt a piece of stone hit his forehead.

Within a few moments, a flow of blood was rolling down his cheek. With the help of other passengers, he was rushed to a nearby hospital.

He was lucky that his eyes dodged the stones. But unfortunately, he had missed the opportunity to meet the long cherished job interview he had managed.

It was the futile, despicable agitation and rampant attitude of those perverse students that not only left him physically injured but blighted the image of their institution.