Pahela Baishakh 1417!
Pahela Baishakh was, and should be a day to remember for all of us! Not for the red and white dresses, nor the songs and cultural activities, but for the 'UNUSUAL' absence of load shedding! Load shedding has become a daily reality-- much like the morning cup of tea. That day it was a significant beginning of the New Year heralded by its absence! Till the time of this writing (around 7.30pm!), we have not lost a minute of electricity to load shedding. A rare event, worth more celebration than the New Year with its surprising and possibly auspicious(?) beginning!
This is the surprising fact of life in our locality, just south off the Gulshan First Circle. I am celebrating this freedom from load shedding by penning these words. I wonder how many of our fellow citizens of Dhaka have had such a joyous beginning of this New Year. We are not getting the daily harsh rumbling of the generators, fighting against the all-enveloping darkness that makes today's 21st. century look more like the 16th or 17th century, when light was for the lords and the ladies to wine and dine, never for the ordinary mortals whose lives were just a few words away! These were: "off with his/her head" uttered from the mouth of the Kings that possibly ruled our ancestors in yester years!
May God help us, for the AL has no 'Aladdin's Lamp' to wish the load shedding away. It will get worse day by day! May be we can hope for some relief but not before 2013 0r 2014. That is the fact of life. 'Pahela Baishakh' was an exception, possibly one whole solitary day of 24 hours till the morning of 15th. April!
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