Silly Tales

Banananana

Our school is very strict about spelling. They used to struggle a lot to formulate the correct spelling for every utterance in each decree. We have a spelling club in our school where we are taught to achieve the skills to be a perfect speller. When I was in playgroup, I used to be taught supplementary spellings which twirl into my ardour to be a spelling bee afterwards. Consequently, in one of the spelling contests I was asked the spelling of banana. I was a bit more keyed up because I knew the spelling and I started spelling it instantly without thinking at all. I was spelling ‘banananana...’ In addition, abruptly I realised that I disregarded how many times I had said 'N, A'. Moreover, I later discovered that I already spelled 'N, A' twice more than I was supposed to and no recurrence was tolerable!

Farzana Rahman Supti
Methodist English Medium School (MEMS),
Dhaka.

Club Fair Scare

The other week, Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) had its Club Fair. It was a nice opportunity to see what fellow students do as extracurricular activities. For someone who wasn't that aware of their existence, I'm excited to have joined the Film Club and Photography Club. On the second day, IUB's Theatre Club put on a small show on our outdoor stage which gathered quite a crowd. They used slap stick comedy, with the actors not able to figure out what this covered figure sitting on the floor was. While various types of characters entered the arena from behind the audience, what took most (male) audience members by surprise (and had them running away) were two brave boys dressed up as hijras. Literally, a row of male students would jump to their feet and back away as these actors would approach them, wanting to stroke and flirt with them. It was so funny that I was too distracted with laughing to run away myself when the same hijras tried to grab my hand!

Walid Sobhan
Independent University Bangladesh, Dhaka.

The Language Conundrum

The other day, I was travelling by a bus when an altercation broke out between a passenger and the bus conductor, all of a sudden. Apparently, the passenger was refusing to pay the newly raised bus fare and the conductor was adamant to take the money from him. Eventually, they started hurling abuses at each other. Due to their loud swearing and most probably to show off how educated he was, another passenger got very pissed off and shouted--in distorted English, “what is the because of your quarrel?” Though the person said everything with a good intention, I couldn't help myself laughing at his bizarre use of English!

Ramna Sheikh
First Aid School,
Dhaka.