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Campus Feature

Journey to Campus
Not the same?
Still the same?

Zaireen Sultana Lupa

How many of us have had to endure our parents, especially fathers, give us a lecture about how hard they worked to commute to school every day ("You kids have it easy. In our days, we had to walk 40 miles to get to school")? Practically everyone, right?

But has it really become any easier getting to our designated places of studies? Mohammed Hamidul Islam (Marketing Major, third year in BBA) of American International University (AIUB) begs to differ.

Hamid wakes up around 5 in the morning every day because he lives in Keranigonj and has to travel first by boat to cross the Buriganga to get to mainland Dhaka and then just about 2 hours (it can take longer if there are traffic jams) by bus to Banani, where he studies. No easy feat.

Rushmoni Roy is another student who lives outside of Dhaka City and has to commute daily by bus to get to her university from Narayanganj, waking up before the birds do and overcoming the hurdles (literally) that, thanks to our government's effort, plague the roads of Bangladesh, to be specific (it's everywhere so you couldn't get more specific than that).

But it is not only the students who live outside Dhaka City that have to conquer commutation-al ordeals to get to school. Take for example, yours truly. I have to get out of the house with at least one and a half hour in hand if I want to get anywhere on time.

On the average, it takes me and my fellow Mohammedpur bashis over half an hour to find a CNG that passes the following requirements: the CNG-wala's willingness to travel in the stated direction, his willingness to accept the fare that would be tolled by the meter reader without adding “tips” of extra ten Taka, etc. Basically, it's the suppliers' willingness against the demanders', we are speaking of, here.

Then, if the CNG driver should be so benevolent, with any luck on traffic, it takes at least 20 minutes to get to our university in Banani. Getting back is just as great a hassle: I once waited almost two hours on the roadside, when it was 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the shades, to find a willing CNG driver and I kid you not! And such is the situation throughout Dhaka City.

So next time, when one of your parents or someone from their era starts lecturing you on how easy you have it being born in the lap of modern transportation system, you can tell them that technology may have advanced a great deal, but we are still not going where we want to any faster. The amount of tribulation in traveling has not decreased, just the package it comes in has changed.