& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Dhaka Day by Day

Close Encounters of the Worst Kind

by Farah Ghuznavi
Wl k many of us ha ? astrong Aversion to ai 'is creepy crawlies, most people stem unites on the fact that cockiuaches are the vorst oitenders in this category They seem unity the greatest number of people on I? most consistent basis' Winn you add to the genual revulsion they create, the fact that they ate likely to survive a nuclear holocaust in unaffected by udution, unlike he rest of usl), it raises the rather worrying question, who will indeed inherit the earth.
h is embarrassing, in one's twenties, to h ive to unless to a fear of cockroaches. Yet ou nip to a fish farm awhile ago. 1 was in-. rintd that there were so many cockroaches in the living quaiters there that < ne was advised not to shake the curtains in any of the nx>ms since several would fall out each time. 1\ spit mv embarrassment 1 mentioned my c kroach phobia to the nmager there, who ujs-ured me by saying that his daught.r (who was ibout twelve! would sleep in my room. I was rather put out to find out later that evening that she was even more terrified
these disgusting bugs than I was J was also puzzled as to why her f. hier bad suggested to me that she stay with me, until she pointed out that her father s wy of trying to break her fear was to throw hv| ex k: >acnes at her! He may have thought it was c ha lac ter forming, but at that price, who needs character!
But my embarrassment at having to men ti >n my fear to the managej it is hardly ■ npatible with the professional image one wants to cultivate) pales when compared to my colleague's experience a few years ago. As a firebrand young politician at RU, she was given the task of inspiring some of the newly arrived first year students Site began to ad-dress the gathering, and had just built up some momentum, when a cockroach descend. d from the ceiling flew straight at her and landed on her nose ! Her duties forgotten, she gave a howl and rarf out of the room,
bounding over some of the first years sitting in front of her It was almost half an hour later before she could make herself return to the room, and take up where she had left off pilbeit somewhat shakily). Apart from her acute embarrassment, as she puts it, that cockroach almost put a premature end to her political career! Talk about losing credibility.
Lest people begin to think at this point . that it is only women who are afraid of such creatures, let m< ask you to give up that notion. A male friend of mine who visited Dhaka a few years ago, assured me shortly after his arrival that cockroaches would be "no problem. After all I've lived in New York and dealt with the roaches there — how bad can the ones here be?" He lived to regret those words.
Cine morning, he was seen to be looking ratqer more pal< than usual. Upon questioning him about what was troubling him, he said that the previous night a huge cockroach had walked into his bedroom from the adjoining toilet. "Oh, what happened. Did you kill itr I asked, in all seriousness. "No, it walked opt of the bedroom door into the living room. But I couldn't sleep all night, worrying about whether ; i would come back! Besides, if it came back while the lights were off, it might even have landed on the bed with me!" 'Well why didn't you just kill it when it was in your room, before it escaped to the living room!" I said. "Are you kidding: That thing had a mean look in its eye " he screeched. "What if it had reached me before I reached my slipper?”
So much for his cool claim that no cockroach here was likely to bother him, given his experiences at home. Clearly, in whatever other ways we are lagging behind the US, we definitely have bigger and better cockroaches right here in Dhaka! Hmmin. now if we could just figure out a way to market them, what an export earner it would be!