http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/02/04/feature_ponder.htm
“No! I’ve run out of gas – need to refill!”
“No! I’ll ONLY go to Mirpur, and no where else!”
“Yes I’ll go there but will charge you three times the usual fare!”
“Yes I’ll go there according to the meter! (But my fare-meter is tampered and without any good reason you’ll be charged three times the usual fare!) ”
“Yes I’ll go there with the usual fare! (But my friends a.k.a. hijackers / molom party people will be waiting in the middle of the road and you have to sacrifice whatever you have with you, perhaps even your life!)”
Being more used to such answers from the cab drivers of Dhaka, I was completely taken aback when I heard a completely different story from my sister who’s just gone to England a couple of days back to pursue her Masters Degree. The admission staff at the University of Portsmouth had informed my sister, prior to her reaching the place, that the usual fare from the railway station to the university is £5. When Farzeen, my sister, hired a cab from the railway station, she asked the cab-driver whether he knew the address where her dormitory is situated. He informed her that he knew the place and off they went. Sadly, the cab-driver wasn’t exactly sure of the address and it took them some time to reach the exact location! Upon reaching the place, Farzeen gave the cab-driver £12, which was the fare being displayed on the fare-meter. To her utter shock and surprise, the cab-driver refused to take anything more than £5! He said “It was my mistake! Why would you pay for it?”
Hmm… Makes sense, a lot of sense! Why wouldn’t a country with such honest and hard-working people prosper and be a world leader in terms of technology, political influence and almost everything else for that matter? A situation where it would have been more usual in our country to hear whinings about increased fuel prices and increased joma to the cab owners, someone has actually foregone valuable time and fuel because it was his mistake! Will we ever be able to do that? Most of us have a burning temptation to blame others whenever something goes wrong and we fail to think how we can hold ourselves responsible for it.
Take the case of our much talked about traffic jams. Lack of roads, lack of walkways, lack of law enforcement, lack of this and lack of that. It is easy to blame the government while we ourselves continue to contribute our share in further increasing the problems. More often than not, we see ourselves breaking the traffic rules; to cross the red lights when driving, to step on to a busy road when there is a foot-over bridge nearby, insisting the cab-driver or rickshaw puller to take the wrong way(against the traffic) and a countless more similar examples. It becomes absolutely essential for us to talk on the cell phone while driving or while crossing the road. Although one must admit that there certainly are lackings in the traffic system, we must change ourselves first before demanding more from the authorities.
Perhaps a little more can be said about our streets. The majority of us pounce on the first available opportunity to talk about how dirty and filthy the streets of Dhaka are. But little do we care when we ourselves throw a can of coke or a tissue paper from our car or while walking. Little do we care when, without a second thought, we store the construction elements of our high-rise (and low rise too!!!) buildings right on the streets. Almost as if the streets were meant to be used as a warehouse of cement, sand and bricks and not for the free movement of traffic!
Hold on! What am I complaining about? How clean is the street right in front of my house? And what have I done to make it better? Nothing I guess. I too have been busy whining and complaining rather than doing something productive! Definitely a point to ponder I suppose!
