In quest of a place
Sheikh Iraj
Every year, thousands of students from different parts of the country come to the capital with the hope of getting admitted to a renowned college or university. But when it comes to accommodation, most of the educational institutions fail to provide any sort of lodging for these out-of-town students. And on top of it all, it is a curse for single young men in this situation.
Most of the doors that you knock on, will say they do not accommodate bachelors. No matter how hard you try, the landlord will not rent you the place. If you somehow manage to convince him to give you the place, then he will definitely demand at least three months rent in advance. The excessive amount of deposit money is another problem to deal with. I wonder whether they think that we want to buy the whole house, rather than just rent a room!
Although I live in Dhaka with my parents, a recent disagreement with my brother prompted me to leave home and stay with one of my close friends. Soon, I realised that a friend in need is a friend indeed. In this busy metropolis, the true colour of your friend will unfold only when you ask to stay at his place, be it his house or dormitory. My friend was sporty enough to let me share his single-room apartment, despite the fact that he would have to answer to the landlord for violating rules and allowing a stranger to stay.
It was hardly 7 in the morning went the doorbell went off. Unfortunately, I opened the door and saw a bald-headed man. He rushed past me and was too fast for me to stop him _ I am pretty sure he jogs everyday. He paused for a second to evaluate the situation, and started yelling at the top of his lungs (I am sure I lost some of my hearing that day). After we got used to his yelling, his words began to make sense and we understood that my friend was being notified to leave his house within seven days.
My poor friend started to plead with him for some more time and I thought: One surely can find a room within seven days. Little did I know how miserably hard that was going to be as we began our search. We started from Banani and ended up in Mirpur, but we could not find a room to our liking. We faced many peculiar questions that had nothing to do with renting a room. They would ask where we had previously lived and whether we are into drugs etc. After a day of fruitless search, we went back to our old place. We were too tired even to change our clothes and were resting when we heard a knock. It was the landlord once again, and this time around, the words that came out of his toothless mouth were music to our ears. He had decoded the mystery as to why I was staying there in the first place. One of our friends had come looking for me and he learned the reason for my being there. So, he allowed us to stay on.
