MAILBOX
Photo: Prabir Das
The Smelly Side of Hatirjheel
A couple of months ago I went to Hatirjheel along with a friend of mine to find an escape from the maddening crowd of Dhaka city. We both had come back home after many years and heard good things about Hatirjheel. A friend of mine went as far as saying that the architecture, the roads and the bridge would make us feel like we were in Europe. The plan was to go to Hatirjheel first, work out an appetite by walking around a bit and then take her to a restaurant. After getting down from the car, we walked and sat down on a bench by the lake. And just then an obnoxious smell hit us. We both started looking at each other and left in a hurry.
She told me she did not feel hungry anymore and went home. Thank you, Hatirjheel for ruining my evening.
Rashed Khan
Kolabagan,Dhaka
***
It is clear that authorities had made no plans to deal with the contaminated water going into Hatirjheel Lake. There is no water treatment plant there, nor can the water go anywhere else. So it is practically the dumping place of contaminated water and garbage. It is a classical example of how short sighted our engineers and planners are. Did they expect the dirty water to treat itself? Another thing is that people ought to be more respectful to the environment. We act like the whole country is a big dumpster and throw garbage anywhere we like. If we look at any body of water in Dhaka, we see all sorts of garbage floating on water. As citizens, we should have the civic sense to maintain cleanliness. We cannot expect the government to solve every problem for us. The government simply does not have the resources.
Shoma Chowdhury
Bhuter Gali, Dhaka
Mad Genius
I liked this week's pick for Mad Genius. With its 1991 album, "Nevermind," Nirvana put alternative rock, the noisy, icon-smashing spawn of punk rock, into the commercial mainstream. The album sold nearly 10 million copies worldwide, knocked Michael Jackson off the top of the popular music charts and established an anthem for a generation with the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit. Nirvana will be remembered for revolutionising the state of rock 'n' roll in the 1990's, pulling it away from a processed, rather synthetic sound and returning it to something more sincere. It is sad that a singer as talented as him died of drug addiction.
Humayun Chowdhury
Rayerbazar, Dhaka
The Rewards That Followed the Award…
Like Farah Ghuznavi, I too have been deeply inspired by Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale, set in the near future in the Republic of Gilead, a military theocracy formed within the borders of what was formerly the United States of America. It is founded by a racist, homophobic, theocratic-organized cult's military coup as an ideologically driven response to the country's ecological, physical and social degradation. In this society almost all women are forbidden to read and most of the women's rights are taken away.
Fiercely political and bleak, yet witty and wise, the novel won the Arthur C Clarke award in 1987, but Atwood has always maintained that the novel is not classifiable science fiction. Nothing practiced in the Republic of Gilead is genuinely futuristic. She is right, and this novel seems ever more vital in the present day, where women in many parts of the world live similar lives, dictated by bigotry and misogyny.
Sarah Junaid
Wellesley College, USA
Via Email
A Son's Tribute
I was glad to read this fascinating story about a woman who was a great mother, educationalist and above all a humanitarian. Dr Maliha Khatun is a shining example of the brave women who rose against all social obstacles and became educated. This story reaffirms my faith in the notion that modernity does not lie in wearing jeans and learning how to speak English, modernity is much more than that. It is more about what we think than what we wear. The fact that Maliha Khatun decided to pursue higher education at a time when few Muslim women were allowed to go to school proves that she was a true modern woman of that age.
Nazma Zaman
Jahangirnagar University
Kick not the stomach of the source of power
The concluding paragraph caught my attention: If these poor illiterate people could have the wisdom and blessing to educate their children at and above par with the richest of the rich, do they not have the sagacity to decide which local leader would best serve his or her interest.
It is an important question that has no simple answer. Let us just look at the candidates on the ballot on any election. Almost always they represent major political parties and hence, vested interests. So the choices of the voters are very limited. Our political culture has to go through an overhaul in order for patriotic and honest candidates to be elected.
Ayesha Haq
Farmgate, Dhaka
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