MAILBOX

Love for Bangla
While I was reading the article about "Love for Bangla"(Published on February 5, 2016), I got mesmerised by seeing the love for Bengali language by a foreigner  who wasn't born here and none of his kith and kin sacrificed life for this language. At the same time, I felt ashamed of our behaviour towards our mother language. It seems to me that we only think about and talk about Bengali language only when the month February comes. It should not be like this. If Dr Martin Hribek, being a foreigner, can show that much love for Bengali, why not we? I would like to request The Daily Star as well as all other leading dailies of Bangladesh to publish articles about the resourcefulness of our language all the year round so that our new generation can be proud of their language and culture.
Md Sayedur Rahman
Jatrabari, Dhaka

Save the children!
Inhuman treatment towards children has become a common phenomenon in recent time, and a recent picture of a brutal torture shows our moral degradation once again.  It is important to note that instead of showing our sympathy towards kids, we are somehow encouraging elders to behave badly with them through uploading and sharing the videos in social media. On the other hand, it is an irony of fate that though we sometimes react sharply, demanding the immediate punishment of the culprits, our domestic workers are often beaten up and, they face physical and mental torture even for a small blunder. So, it seems to me that we are actually not concerned about the kids, which we should be, and there is a huge gap between our belief and activities. Unless we count the kids as our own, it would not be possible for us to stop this inhuman practice.
It is high time to raise social conscience against this malice.
Rifat Munir Eti
Banani, Dhaka

How to Kill a Language
The article titled 'how to kill a language' (published on February 19, 2016) was a well-suited and properly elucidated piece which was full of information and quite eloquent. Ahead of the celebration of the International Mother Language Day, the writer brought out this important issue pertaining to all the mother tongues in our country.  In our country Bengali speaking dominating people, somehow willingly or unwillingly, don't pay much attention to all the other mother tongues spoken by the indigenous communities. Although as a nation we take pride that we, in 1952, had paid the supreme sacrifice for our mother tongue, we keep on sidelining our indigenous communities' mother tongues considering Bengali being the only language here. Moreover, every year on the eve of 21st February, we start to write about the significance of Bengali or celebrate the International Mother Language Day with pomp and passion but only a few talks about other mother tongues prevail in our country.  I think, the government should take proper and demanding steps to look into this matter of preserving all the living mother tongues in our country. A great accolade goes out to the Star Weekend for publishing article about this unheard matter.
Samiul Raijul
London, United Kingdom