Situation-1

YOU are studying fervently for the test tomorrow and perhaps your mother is saying her prayers in a quiet, peaceful manner. Suddenly — a terrible noise and hullabaloos breaks the serenity of your house, and as you fall tumbling from the chair in an vain attempt to jump up. you notice your mom (who has evidently forgotten all her suras momentarily) staring at you vacantly — apparently

dumbfounded. Meanwhile the noise, which it turns out. came from a "lottery-ticket-vending-van". still chants. "Matro chol-lish lokhho taka. Jodi laiga Jai. chharben aprii Dhaka — shon-deho ki tai?" (???)

Situation-2

You start out early in the

Where does it start and where does it stop? The answer is it starts everywhere and ends no where. Think about how people trash the whole city. Nobody bothers to use trash cans or dustbins to dump their garbage — instead they dump it anywhere and everywhere. And strangest of all, always a trash from a house with a dustbin nearby lands "outside" the enclosed area! This — cannot be explained by me and could pose a serious threat to Mr Sigmund Freud had he tried to explain the Bangalee mentality with his theories!

Another disgusting subject — which I hate to write about — is excreting publicly. How many times I have wanted to kick these people right Into the drain. And worst of all. it's so

range can hear it! It is compulsory to listen even if you don't want to.

Honking or blowing your horns is another detestable practice. The purpose of horn was presumably not to be blowed everytime there was a traffic jam or each time the driver gets mad at a rickshawpuller. But today — people honk for no reason at all. Perhaps to let everybody know a car is coming, so be careful — your life's at risk. Nobody bothers to cool down even in front of hospitals or clinics. One cannot just help wondering where, the civic-sense, the infinitesimal amount of consideration that used to exist amongst us. has vanished!

In various cases of merely trivial matters, people have

'morning. Your first class is Maths. The subject is toqgh and the teacher obnoxidu/. (Most maths teachers turn .out to be like that — somehow!) You are almost there .... almost .. "Kintu na" — "holo ha" — because in front of you the road is blocked by a pandel (got the spelling right?) in which a public meeting will be held. This causes an incredible contraflow in the street and a bolt from the blue right on your head.

"Inconsiderate"! look up the word in a dictionary and you'll find a picture of a Bangladeshi or Bangalee just beside it. It would be though, unfair to keep the compliment straddled within our country or nation. But as the article is being placed in the very context. 1 have no other choice but continue in this very fashion.

Today — somehow I feel, people have started losing all their compassion and empathy for others and have begun to do only what's best for themselves — regardless however, of how it effect's other people. And that is basically what inconsiderateness is all about.

damn embarrassing when your travel companion(s) is a female!

Let me go back to my initial subject:, miking.is another problem which has apparently reached its peak. Lottery-ticket-vending-vans have only accentuated and intensified our age-old predicament of cinema-advertising vans. These vans play really horrible Bangla-cinema songs by even worse taperecorders. The end result is disastrous. This is virtually energy release through sheer mental torture. And to make things works the noisy elements invariably come along at really impossible times — in the morning, or during your treasured siesta or else during "Azan"s or praying times.

As the matter of sound pollution has come up. 1 would like to conveniently mention another matter. It concerns car stereos. Initially people played stereos, because they themselves wanted to listen to music. But recently, some (especially the younger generation) people have become so "considerate and kind" that they play the music so loud that every person within the 20-km

been seemingly adamant to prove their lack of caring, and their indifference. Have you ever, seen .youths;, gathering in New Markel and sitting idly on the face of a sign which says "Do not sit here" ? These people sit in the middle of the road and keep looking around for elements which could substantially whet their appetite for eve-teasing! Have you ever seen people park their vehicles so carelessly and haphazardly that it causes, contraflow, jam — absolute havoc in the streets and you to want to commit suicide? The truth is. that these people do not — by any means care about other's inconveniences! In one particular case, 1 remember, our car was stuck for an hour as another carelessly parked vehicle obstructed it!

I daresay, our tenant, who has rented the first floor of our house, parks four cars inside the boundary of our house. Most of the people who come to visit us. have to park their cars out-

Arid — before I forget, let me tell you about the very incident

that Induced me the idea of an article like this One day my brother and I were trying in vain to obtain a rickshaw in Siddheswari. It was pretty late at night, (it was nowhere near Ramna Thana for that matter — mind you — Just in case you're wondering...) After what seemed like eons, a solitary figure emerged and we almost flew up to the chap who was paddling away idly. We stated our destination and were about to fix the fare when this really fat. black slob came running out of nowhere. Jumped onts "our” rickshaw and shrieked "cha-lao". We were more hurt (?) than astounded at this fiendish act. Hah! talk about civic sense!

In another similar case, the same two characters, again my brother and I were out shopping in Aarong. for Eid. After much grumbling-mumbling and fuss, I finally found this "pretty cool" kurta/punjabi. 1 was going to try it on or something — I don't remember, but I put it on the rotating — thing for a moment — unaware of the would-be-perpetrator Just behind me. This fiendish slob Just grabbed "my" kurta and ran like hell! What can 1 say? I was mortified, and quite trying to find another kurta in protest (?!!)

Let us now turn politics and marvel at the lack of civicsense and consideration in politics! Think about processions and how they block the road while passing. All the cars, buses-trucks nave to crawl behind it. Wherever I see such processions. I just can't help wondering why they don't let at least one row go: that would help a lot. Public meetings do this too which I mentioned earlier. I have been trapped in Kakrail on many occasions while going to college due to political meetings or the constructions for it.

Another matter is that, the road is often closed when the prime minister is to pass. This started, to the best of my knowledge, from the regime of Ershad. This inconsiderate practice renders literally hundreds of vehicles tangled in an intricate web of traffic jam. This haq^uLfa stop! Or else the alternaSBlBs are (a) Make new roadiBEvYlp's (b) Btfy^he"PM^ -a private heJicOpter (c) Arrange underground tube-systems (d) Make everyone else call on the PM or whoever, who attempts to block the roads.

In this article, I have tried to express my moderate views, in which I feel, the whole country, the whole nation Is lacking in civic sense. Some people hold radical opinions too. in this rp-gard. 1 have a friend who feels, people should not wear, too bright or fluorescent colored attires. Just the other day. he pointed out a young man wearing a horrible yellow T-shirt and maroon cord trousers and said, "that's what I call lack of consideration!" (I had earlier unfortunately asked him to find incidents and examples for my write-up), I tried to explain that the clothes did not cause him any inconvenience. He thought for a little while, covered nis eyes and said. "Yes it does. It blinds your eyes while driving!??"