Star Diary

A Street Scene in Dhaka

It was around 10 o clock at night near the city's Farmgate intersection. A curious crowd was gathering around a canvasser who was selling some 'herbal' aphrodisiac in a very peculiar way. After attracting the crowd with some raunchy anecdotes about the usefulness of his medicines and experiences of its users, the canvasser presented two macaques; one male and one female, before the crowd. Then the canvasser, holding them with a leash, applied the medicines on those poor creatures particularly on the male macaque. After a few seconds, the effect of the stimulant started to show. The male macaque violently attacked the female one and literally raped the poor creature. The crowd enjoyed the whole scene with repeated applause. Some of them also bought the medicines from that canvasser. However, nobody, not even the patrolling police, cared about how cruelly the canvasser treated the poor, helpless animals. On the other hand, these peddlers should also be prevented from selling these illegal, unauthorised drugs in open streets which can cause serious health hazards.  
Navid Hasan 
Farmgate, Dhaka

Discipline, where are you?

A couple of years ago, the government had passed a rule that no teacher can physically punish their student. While there's no doubt it was a great step, but there are certain situations when we exactly don't know how to react. Yes, some of our teachers got carried away, but so did some of our students. A couple of months ago, a student of our school verbally abused the teacher when he questioned him for not bringing his homework. We were present there and witnessed the whole situation. We got shocked at how a student of class nine can be so disrespectful and use such abusive language. The student did not get punished for unknown reasons but the teacher was removed from that class. My question is that is there an alternative way of how we can teach discipline to our kids? It would be great if specialists of this field can grant me an answer.
Monzurul Haque
Dhaka