Feature

Banning of rickshaw and walkers' woes

Raihana Rahman

Recently the Government has passed a law banning rickshaws on the main roads from Badda to Gulshan and Gulshan to Mohakhali. I would like to point out that how difficult it has been for the last couple of days for people like me (i.e students) but also lower working class people. Yes, theres might be beter control of traffic, but only to those who have luxurious cars with their AC's on. They fail to feel the scorching heat of the sun on the sunniest summer days, or the rain of the where the poorly drained waters are at the feet of the traveller. As a student from a middle class family of East West University living in Badda, it's really hard walking all the way from Badda to the Mohakhali Campus.

Another alternative most of the people would say is a CNG but the costs they reason upto are 50Tk for a distance which I used to pay 15Tk only. As a result of the new law not only do people suffer in bed weather but its immpossible for a student to pay for so much for half of the journey per day. Because of the weather there are people like me who have been getting ill even more because of travelling in this method. I would humbly like to urge the government to please rethink this decision and also urge the people to voice their opinions. Not everybody in Dhaka city can afford cars for daily movement.

Zannatul Lamea

It's kind of strange how we keep on getting new labels. People love labelling us sometimes as “destructive,” sometimes as “anti-social,” at other times as “degenerating”. People have a strange instinct of blaming the “youth culture”, and in strange ways too. Whatever the youth trend is, some people always have the tendency to speak against it. However, belonging to the youth generation, I would like to evince our point of views on certain aspects.

We frequently are encountered with the complain of demanding too much freedom. And I don't find a point, why shouldn't we? Particularly, girls have to face lots of barriers whenever the question of “freedom” comes into spotlight. We are always given excuses about the society and underlying consequences. I agree that our society has certain flaws, but why should we suffer for that? After all this is the age, this is the time when life swings. When we shall mature up, we wont have these vibes, these gush of feels that adds colour to our lives. So what logical point is there to restrict us now? Sometimes I really wonder, what is more preferable to parents? The sulky face of their children “safe” at home, or the ecstatic face of their children granted little freedom? They have doubts about the “youth generation” taking right decisions over going astray. On this point, I can guarantee that if we are trusted with freedom, than we surely will respect that trust in every way and restrict ourselves willingly. However, it is seen that the restricted youths go far more astray than the ones who are trusted with liberty. It's not really our fault, we do express ourselves, but if our points of views are totally neglected for the sake of some social stigmas, we just cant accept that. It's only then we start telling lies and giving lame excuses. Yes, our parents have every right to refrain us from going astray and teaching us what's right and what's wrong. During the teen-age years, I guess restrictions are okay, because at that time, we are very gullible and get easily diverted. But most of the time it's seen that even if boys get liberty, girls are most of the time deprived of freedom even during university days. Girls have more maturity than boys-psychologically. But still, they are the ones most restricted, and the trauma continues. This however I find very much humiliating, particularly because by the age of 18-20, we are mature enough to differentiate between right and wrong. Even then, we are not given the desired liberty to take certain small decisions if not serious decisions of life. This is very suppressing and I can assure that these things initiate the path to what the society labels as “destruction”.

Many a time people criticize the adolescents taking drugs and going the path of destruction. I would like to question those people, have you ever wondered what causes us youths to lead us to the path of destruction? Have you ever tried to understand our hopes? Have you ever tried to stand by our side when we are lonesome in distress? Restrictions can never do good, though they provide the mirage of keeping us closer and safer, they actually, literally cause us to lose our way in the dark zephyr. So, next time before questioning our unreasonable actions, I would like to advise those people to justify their own attitudes to us youths on the scale of rationality.

(School Of Business, North South University)