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To The Editor
Humayun Ahmed, our king of words
At a time when almost everybody was reading Humayun Ahmed's novel, I hardly read the same thinking them to be of less literary value. No one then told me that there was a great message and food for thought and recreation in his deceptively simple, direct and light-hearted style of telling stories. Then when the writer married Shaon, an architect and artiste of his daughter's age, I bracketed him with other bohemian type popular and prolific writers of the world. How wrong I was then! I now very well understand that he lived his life aggressively.
What is remarkable is that Humayun has become larger than life after his death. Even people like me who had wrong notions about him have started to know about Humayun. He was imposing but beneath that apparently hard attitude flowed the stream of love and affection. Small wonder the protagonists of his novels and drama were, as it were, his own alter egos..
The way we paid respect to this great mind, turning out in thousands when our 'King of Words' was being laid to eternal rest only shows depth of their love for the writer in their hearts. People braved torrential rain and muddy terrain to come and have a glimpse of their beloved writer in his last journey of life. What was the magic? It was nothing but the love for literature and a benevolent regal mind. Cannot we now come forward in thousands to rid ourselves of all those bad things he criticized through his writings?
Abdus Subhan How is Rexona?
A long-delayed letter from a dear old friend in Barisal has just arrived. She was very disturbed by your story, published on April 6th, of a 7-year old schoolgirl, Rexona, who was reported as having been beaten by a teacher so badly that she needed medical treatment that she could not afford as her family were too poor.
Neither the teacher nor the school - Tiakhali Government Primary School - were offering to pay for it either.
My friend wants to know how the child is, whether anyone paid for the medical treatment she needed and whether you could publish her address so that kind people could send her money. (I am not sure about that bit, actually!)
Has the teacher been dismissed or the school prosecuted?
I share with my friend the regret that you publish lots of excruciating stories and then do not follow them up leaving your readers dangling and in despair at Bangladesh, when, in fact, people of goodwill, including authorities who are not heartless or corrupt, might have acted honourably and produced consequences that would rejoice our hearts and re-kindle hope ...
My friend wrote, “We send our children to school to learn the difference between right and wrong and if those who teach them choose to be outlaws, it is time they packed their bags and left the profession before they cause our children more harm.” Well said!
How to get rid of bad teachers - especially those who have 'bought' their positions or have other reasons to think they are untouchable until retirement - is another minefield, of course, but, meanwhile, could your correspondent let us know how Rexona is - and the teacher who was her (reported) persecutor? Or has the whole thing been swept under the carpet?
Angela Robinson
Baridhara DOHS, Dhaka
Negative Mombasa
Thank you for printing my letter “Kenyan Givic Sense” on 25 July. Readers should not have the misconception that I am in some sort of Mini-
Paradise. What I wrote was basically correct, but there is also a darker side.
Cost of living in Mombasa is almost three times that of Dhaka. Potato is per Kg, Ksh 130 (1 Ksh = BDT 1/-), No vegetable below Ksh 70 and no fruits below Ksh 150. Dal 250-350, chicken 350, only mutton and beef at 400 and 300 are comparable. Medicines are prohibitively priced, you just can't afford to fall sick. Prices of other items of daily need can stretch up to even 10 times.
Security seems to be an obsession and guard companies are a booming business. Most homes, apartment complexes have live electric wire fences on boundaries. Few expatriate individuals (no jewellery, mobiles etc) are seen on roads for fear of being mugged. I have not ventured out for a walk for the last 25 days.
Though piped water is plentiful, it is brackish. So water has to be purchased for cooking, another brand for drinking and yet another if there is a baby at home. Cooking oil prices and house rents would make a Dhakayia swoon and rice eating a luxury. Land prices have skyrocketed making Gulshan plots look cheap.
All in all, I feel like a “bird in a gilded cage” pining for the risks of Dhaka's roads and missing my usual jaunts to the kacha bazaar, phoochkawala, vendors etc and to the park outside Niketon.
Sikander Ahmed
Kisangoro, Mombasa, Kenya
A great mistake!
The news says, South Korea's President apologized to the nation for corruption cases allegedly involving his elder brother and close aides (The Daily Star, July 25). In his speech to the nation he said, T bow my head and apologize...”
In our current standards of ruling party politics, that's a great mistake he has made. Instead of bowing his head, he should have kept his head erect, more erect than before and said that the allegations of corruption brought against his brother and close aides were false, fabricated and baseless, that the allegation was brought to smear the image of his family and the government. It was a conspiracy against him and his government. He could have gone farther and said it was not only a conspiracy against his government, but against the whole Korean nation. He could have uttered all these words in an angry tone with a facial expression of aggressiveness as if a gladiator fighting invisible enemies.
How come he has become a president and does not know all these rhetoric!
Faruque Hasan
Alaol Avenue, Uttara, Dhaka