The Most Unsuitable Place for Living?
Shounak Reza
Every afternoon, as I come out of school, my classmates and I get surrounded by a crowd of young men. The men are busy distributing pamphlets and leaflets among the students. These pamphlets _ mostly containing advertisements of some coaching centre or other _ are just handed to us.
Someone hastily asks, Are you an eighth grader? Impassively, I say no. But I am handed a pamphlet anyway. I hold on to it, waiting to throw it in the wastepaper basket after reaching home. However, around me, I can see others doing things that can have tragic (yes, I mean tragic) consequences: they are throwing away the pamphlets right on the street, adding to other wastes already there. The street soon becomes littered with pamphlets, food wrappers, scrap papers, even soft drink cans. It breaks my heart to see that.
How can somebody even do a thing like this? How can people knowingly pollute the environment of their own city? How can they? Such a sight is common in Dhaka city, and to be more specific, it is not uncommon anywhere else in Bangladesh.
Dhaka is often called one of the most unsuitable places to live. One of the reasons, of course, is the traffic jam. The other reason is definitely the increasing amount of pollution. It is not uncommon to spot people throwing papers, food wrappers, bottles, etc. here and there. You can see people spitting anywhere they like. You also find men relieving themselves by the roadside. And everybody simply accepts it. Nobody says a word against it. And seeing this kind of behaviour simply breaks my heart.
Many people causing this pollution are actually well-educated. But do a couple of degrees really matter when a person has no love for his or her own city? Is a person really educated when he or she isnt even aware that it is everyones responsibility to keep the city clean? In our country, many people do their best to ensure that their children get into the best university or medical college. They react terribly when their son or daughter gets a poor grade in say chemistry. But how many of these parents react when they see their child throwing away an empty drink bottle on the street? Are these people actually educating their children?
I have seen countless people updating statuses on Facebook about how unclean Dhaka is. Here is what I have to say to them: instead of sitting back and grumbling, play your role to keep your city clean. This city belongs to all of its residents. Every citizen has a own role to play to keep this city neat and clean.
Someday, I hope, with the united efforts of all its residents, Dhaka will be a beautiful place to live in. Then it can retain and cherish its golden past. Dhaka is the city that the Mughals developed, the once-cosmopolitan city that saw flourishing trades, the city that belongs to all of us.
The writer is a Class-9 student of St Joseph Higher Secondary School, Dhaka.
