I Look I See

 
Sorry, I won’t be able to write for the next couple of weeks. After that I will be regular in writing I hope.



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My Friend, Rifat who started blogging before me got frustrated after couple of months' writing. Because he was didn't get quick response from the readers as he had anticipated. So he wrote this emotional post on May.
Sunday, May 23, 2004


You are reading a bad blogI have been blogging for last 3 months. At first it was a thrill for me. There was not so many readers of mine. I waited for long to have some regular reader. I got some but the number is too little to mention. I didn't give up and tried my best. For the last few weeks the number of reader per day became very low. I already found that I am not providing good posts mostly. So you are among them who are reading a bad blog.Actually my situation here is not appropriate to blog. Its something like luxury here. I don't have internet access, easy to get newspapers and other facility at my dormitory. I have to go to cyber cafe mostly to write something here. That is both expensive and time consuming. Sometimes I feel lack of interest and proper subject to write. I expect ideas from my readers to improve my blog in all ways. After all these I am still confident to continue. May be after few more weeks there will be only one reader left. And thats me :). Anyway, thanks to you all to be with a bad blog.
posted by Rifat @ 7:30 PM  
Comments (12)
 
I then wrote the following comments to his this post taking different names.
 

Hmmm...i'm certain that you wrote this post with much emotion. But I have to tell you only one thing... and that is you are a lot more stupid than i had thought you to be. Now listen... Don't care about the number of readers. cause I heard a story of a great writer who was once told that only 5 copies of your this book have been sold so far. and he said "what?? I thought no more than 3 copies will be sold cause i know that there ain't many ppl to read good stuffs." So don't worry. think that your blog is too good for we readers. But I assure u that you will get many readers only if you stop caring about your readers.
Zahir Email 05.23.04 - 11:02 am #




Make sure that you don't write anything from the newspaper. write whatever you think. don't follow others. And remember, everyday while conversing with ppl you learn many beautiful events. right??? why don't you write those events??? I'm sure everyone will like them. you can write about Rajshahi. The communication system, about the ppl, how many cars are there. you can write about the lifestyle of them. Surely there are many many things to write about that can attract readers easily. And again... don't care much about the readers. At least you will always have a regular reader. hahaha.a......
Anonymous 05.23.04 - 11:03 am #




Your blog is a real bad one indeed...lolBut why do i come to this blog/?????......
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Is it because I love rubbish stuffs???
Fan of your blog Email 05.23.04 - 11:10 am #




Why do you say that this blog is bad??? I really like your blog. Specially when you write about your university life. I really love to know about the university life in Bangladesh. I wish I could be with guys like to a university like yours. bye..don't stop please. I will miss your writing.c ya with regular posts.
Fariha Email 05.23.04 - 11:16 am #




who is that stupid that says it is a bad blog????
a fan 05.23.04 - 12:14 pm #




a stupid, huh??? yeah u r right "a fan". surely that guy is a stupid.
Fariha 05.23.04 - 12:23 pm #





Hey Rifat,You are a gadha.
you are a great gadha.
no no... I great great gadha. no no...
I great great great gadha. no no... you are the greatest gadha.
Who told you to think about the readers???? You are really a stupid to expect a big number of readers in this short time. And don't blame the lack of facilities in your place for your failure to get many readers. That's also a great stupidity. I'd appreciate if you delete that counter from your template. Then you won't have to worry a little. a friend 05.24.04 - 9:16 am #




sorry for the silly mistake above. it would be "A" instead of "I"
a friend 05.24.04 - 9:24 am #


 
The next day when I phoned him to know what he was thinking about blogging, he was totally ecstatic and I understood that he would never think of quiting again. Especially when he found someone named "Fariha" is reading his blog. I don't think he can ever think of quiting....Hahaha....Can he? 
 
And it happened just as I thought. Now he has a modest number of readers and he surely is enjoying their presence. And after reading those comments he never had any problem with blogging.



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...is the most Successful Government:

A TV ad:
With music and dancing of many boys and girls a TV ad starts in Bangladesh TV.
“Nutri C, Nutri C. Orange flavoured Nutri C…

100% vitamin C with 6 other vitamins; very nutritious for your body.”
Hey, where do they put those 6 other vitamins when vitamin C covers 100%?


A Canvasser’s advertisement of his product:
Dear brothers and sisters I’ve a special kind of balm that can remove your headache, foot ache, back pain immediately. It is a well-examined balm that has no side effects, no oiliness, no odour and no burning. If you don’t believe me verify it. Tell me if someone of you have headache. I’ll put this balm on his head and you will see that the headache is gone in a minute. And he won’t have to pay for that. I give you 200% guarantee that this balm is 100% affective. Once you have used it even headache’s big daddy has no ability of staying in your head. If you find any problem bring it back to me. I will return you the money right away. Buy it. Buy it. Buy it… You won’t get the chance again to buy because I’ve come here just for today. You will never find me here again. Take on 50% discount. The company rate is 20taka but just for you and only for now I’m giving it for 10taka, 10 taka 10 taka. Buy it. Buy it. Buy it….

Our Prime Ministers’ Common Speech at a Public Meeting:
….
………
Bangladesh now has no deficiency in food. We have made a huge improvement in this sector. In last government’s time people died in want of food. But is our time Bangladesh is completely self-sufficient in food. Not only that we have improved it so much that we now have to make new storehouses to store the excessive food grains. The old storehouses are not enough to store so much food grains. We are now thinking of exporting rice to foreign counties and earn huge amount of foreign currency (it brings huge clapping and screaming among the supporters).
…
But unfortunately our opposition party leaders don’t see this improvement. They are jealous of our success. Don’t listen to them. They tell lies. We are telling you the truth. This government is a successful government in every sector….


To tell you the truth this is just a carbon copy of what our previous PM said in a public meeting very similar to this one.

A Joke:
“Hear you’ve been having car trouble”, said one neighbour to another.
“I brought a new carburettor that saved thirty percent on gas, a new transmission that saved fifty percent on gas, and a new set of spark plugs that saved forty percent of gas”
“So what happened?” asked the neighbour.
“After I drove about forty miles, the gas tank overflowed.”
                                                                                                         -Taken from Reader’s Digest.



What we do:
When we see that Nutri C TV ad we laugh at their stupidity. We ignore the canvassers when we see them on roadside telling all those lies. And when our Prime Minister tells us its success stories we mourn at our helplessness. But we can’t ignore it because we are compelled to hear it. Na shune jaibe koi???


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One day, at the private tutor’s class where we 15 students used to study statictics, the teacher was explaining how to take a good sample to find out the total number of a particular element in a certain area. He brought the example of contaminated water and then while explaining the subject he asked the class, “Can anyone of you tell me how we can have a good source of water?”
We can make a hole under the Bay of Bengal” said one student jokingly. “Then connect it to our country.”
The whole class burst out laughing at his stupid answer. But the teacher who is by nature very humorous didn’t laugh at all, instead he said, “I see that this boy has a bright future ahead of him. If he keeps thinking this way, he would become a good politician.”

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...shouldn’t do in Bangladesh:

· You should never go to any meeting on the scheduled time.
(Main guest: “The scheduled time for the meeting is 1:30. Should I go after half an hour or at 2:30?” Organizer: “You are the main guest. Don’t come before 3:00. Main guest should always come last.” )
· You should never believe with the politicians say.
(Before election a Bangladeshi politician: I promise I will enforce law in this country. I’ll bring the guilty to justice. I will make Bangladesh a ‘Sonar Bangla’. I couldn’t keep my promise last time. But this time I promise I will keep my promise.” )
· You should never say things to the point. Exaggerate them. People will believe one tenth of what you claim.
(“He says he has visited 10 countries. Shala… Just by visiting India he says he has visited 10 countries.”)
· You should never hope to get back the money you have lent someone.
(Borrower: “Hey, for ten years I’ve been saying that I’ll give you the money back in two months. But still you don’t trust me.)

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· You can protest anything and everything of the Government (But there is no one to listen) without getting any problem from the ruling party activists.
· You can pee anywhere you like.
· You can break every kind of traffic law (if there exists any).
· You can sound the car horn as much as you like on the road. You will stop after getting tired but on one will complain.
· You can offer bribe to everybody.
· You can do any crime you like and get away with it.
· You can escape paying government tax.
· You can get paid without working at the government office.
· You can illegally occupy government land and then illegally legalize that land and feel proud for being owner of the land.
· You can bargain on the price of anything at any shop. (Customer: “How much is it?” Seller: “700taka” Customer: “How about 50?”
· You can spend ½ the year on vacation thanks to strikes, religious festivals of the Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists, Mujib day, Zia day, freedom fighter’s day, language day, liberation day, victory day and so on.
· You can enjoy the natural beauty of night everyday. The beautiful while moon. The cool breeze of the wind. Ahh… How wonderful. (That’s why the electricity goes every night here.)
· You won’t have to pay parking fees anywhere (but your car can at any time come under attack of the picketers without any warning).
· You won’t have to calculate time all the time. You will get it in huge amount here. Time is not invaluable in this country. It is valueless here.
· You won’t feel the necessity of a racing car. Because rickshaw, bus truck, racing car all runs at the same speed here. Aha… this is called real equality.
· You won’t have to go to a gym or to have morning walk everyday; just a 15-minute bus journey will give you proper exercise thanks to all those potholes we have in our ever-constructing roads.
· And most importantly you won’t have to vote Mr. Bush.
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Almost everybody now-a-days decrease the age in their academic certificates. This alternation is not a secret anymore; rather it has become a custom. I haven’t seen anyone who uses real birth date in his certificates. And our schoolteachers assist us in decreasing the age. Before getting admitted into a school the birth certificate is necessary but before any board examination the schoolteachers usually consult with the students to know what date he/she would like to have officially when registrations are going for the board examinations.

My maternal aunt has a daughter and a son of one-year age difference between them. Salma, the older of the two decreased 2 years from her actual birth date. On the other hand when her brother Shaown’s registration for board exam was going the next year, the teacher of his class who is very lazy didn’t contact with any student before making the change. Instead of consulting with anyone she decreased one year from everyone’s birth date. Now on the certificate Salma and Shaown has only ten days age difference. It would have been ok if it were the same day. But 10 day difference between two siblings and of the same mother? How can it be possible?
Shaown’s friend who came from Italy to attend just the exam is also in trouble for this teacher as his age has also been decreased by one year. But on passport he is one year older. So he will face some problems with the certificate when he goes to Italy again to his family.
My uncle who studied in a village school fell in a different kind of problem. His village schoolteacher increased his age by a year and a half years. When asked why he did so, he said, “It is good to have age increased because it will help you to get a good job. People will think that you have good experience.”

Most of the students prefer to decrease age only by changing the birth year without changing the month and date. But those who change the date too are rather lucky to have two birth dates. They can have two birthday parties in a year. Our Prime Minister has 4 birth dates. Sadly one of her birth dates is fixed on the death anniversary of the founder of our present main opposition party. So the day the opposition party politicians arrange functions to mourn, the ruling party politicians are in a joyful mood cutting cakes celebrating birthday. This is just an example of the nasty politics we have in our country.

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A young man hired by a supermarket reported for his first day of work. The manager greeted him with a warm handshake and a smile, gave him a broom and said, “Your first job will be to sweep out the store.”
“But I’m a university graduate”, the young man replied indignantly.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that”, said the manager. “Here, give me the broom- I’ll show you how.”
-Taken from Reader’s Digest.

This is just a joke. But our students spend all their effort to get good grades. And the parents also think that good grade is everything. As a result they are not given any household work to do. “No work, no play, just study.” This theory most of the time backfires on their children.

Few days ago I went to Mr. Neil Russell to talk about my university admission process and he was not finding my file in his computer. I then showed him how to find a file. “Press Ctrl + F. Then type Zahir*.*. and all the files with Zahir in the beginning will come.”
He thanked me and said, “I’m tired with all these Bangladeshi workers (He has 6 employees just for to assist him in consultancy and to handle computer work). I instructed them several times to put the files of Bangladeshi students in Bangladesh file. But they keep making new folders. There is only one girl who can work a bit others are of no good.”
“Why don’t you take an expert in computer instead of so many workers?” I suggested.
“Four of them are university graduates. I didn’t know that they are so weak in computer. I’m now giving them lessons on computer. And I also will have to teach them English. I can’t understand whatever they say. They are attending English classes with other IELTS students.
I’ve had enough with them. My Russian girls are far better. From next month you will see a Russian girl here.”
I didn’t argue with him because I knew that he was totally right.

There are thousands of job opportunities in Bangladesh but for the good workers only. There is a feeling in the students of our country that when you are a student your only job is to study. There is no need to work. After graduation your extraordinary academic background will bring you a good job. You won’t even have to look for a job.
For this prevailing idea, parents don’t let their children do anything.

I once took my one friend to kitchen shopping to accompany me while I buy chickens and beef; which I used to buy while returning home from the big market we had beside our college. When the chickens where slaughtered they were put in the feather cleaning machine for to clean up the feathers. We call it dressing.

My friend said, “Wow, that’s a nice machine. It cleans all the feathers so quickly and so beautifully. It’s really wonderful”.
“Hey, haven’t you seen such a thing before?” I asked surprised.
“I never went to any kitchen market.” He said. “Actually, I never had to as our caretaker takes good care of all those stuffs.”

Then I showed him other parts of the bazaar and explained different things to him. And he enjoyed it much as if he were a foreigner, came on a visit to Bangladesh.
I had a classmate at Chittagong College who used to spend all of his time on study. He had 3 home tutors. He also used to study in groups to 4 college teachers going to their houses. He never played with us because he will miss his teacher’s class.
Giving study excessive priority we are in reality heading towards a nation of ineffective workers.
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Having to give terrorists money as we pay tax to our government is very common in Bangladesh. If you don’t have good political support behind you, you will have to give Chada (Tax to terrorists) for every kind of trade you make be it buying or selling a building or building a house or a shop or even in purchasing a piece of land, you will have to pay Chada no matter what. But this chada collection has gone a step further recently. Now it has become a legal demand. The following story will clarify my point.

Commissioner means: One who takes commission
The present commissioner of our area is not an activist of the ruling party. So he doesn’t have any control of this Bayezid Thana. He has to be consent with the fancy title with literally no real power. On the other hand a ruling party activist named Akbar is going to apply for the commissioner position on next election is virtually enjoying all the power a commissioner can enjoy. If something goes wrong people go to him to have the problem solved and he like a village leader solves the problem immediately.

A group of Mastans (a terrorist under any political party’s shelter is called a mastan.) went to a shop of a fish seller one day and demanded 1 lakh(100,000) taka, if not paid he will have to pack up his shop for good. 1 lakh taka is obviously too much for him to pay as his monthly income is no more than 10,000taka.

Finding no other way to convince the mastans with less money he went to Akbar Bhai ( Bhai literary means brother; usually mastans and politicians are called bhai) And Akbar Bhai gave him a nice solution. He said, “ I understand that for a poor man like you it is not possible to pay 1 lakh taka. Don’t worry. You won’t have to pay all of this amount at a time. Just pay 5,000taka per month and you in 2 years the total money will be paid.”
But the shopkeeper didn’t like this beautiful idea; instead he packed for his village home with his belongings.



Story #2:
Mr. Saiful (my uncle’s friend) one day saw a day labourer walking along a road at Bakolia crying. Upon asking the labourer he came to know that a policeman caught him few minutes ago and took 250taka from him forcefully and threatened him that if he tells about this incident to anyone the policeman will file a case against hi. Mr. Saiful then took the labourer to the commissioner of that area. The commissioner then called the policeman in his room and asked about the authenticity of the labourer’s claim. But he couldn’t get any proper response from the policeman instead he was standing saying nothing. With fierce eyes he looked at the policeman for sometime brought all the rage of the world in him and suddenly gave a big slap on the policeman’s face. This sudden unexpected strong slap was too much for him to handle. As a result he fell on the couch beside him. The commissioner then declared, “If I hear anything like this of you again from anyone, that will be your last day on this earth. I’m not going to take any further action against you today…”

The labourer was returned his 250taka afterwards and the commissioner told his to report to him immediately if he falls in any kind of trouble at Bakolia.
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Q: Why the title of your blog is ‘I Look I See’?
A: ‘I look’ means I search and ‘I see’ means I find. Therefore ‘I Look I See’ means I find the truth because I search for it. Before starting this blog I was interested in writing about politics and recent events. But later I changed my mind and now I only concentrate writing on funny, interesting or educational events of my life or of others. So this title for this blog is not befitting but I’m not planning to change it.

Q: Why this blog?
A: At first my aim was to become popular by blogging. But now I’m just interested about solving some problems of our country. And at the same time I’m looking at my future as a writer. I’m writing all the funny and interesting events and most importantly nice conversations. My readers will never be disappointed by reading my future posts because there will be something funny or interesting in them. In future if I write a drama or a novel or even a short story these conversations and events would be very handy.

Q: Why don’t you write about politics and recent events?
A: I’m now carefully trying not to write about politics and recent events. I want my blog never to become old. There is no point in criticizing politicians because criticism would not make them change their mind. Thinking about dishonest politicians of our ruling party makes me sick to the stomach. What good can it bring me by getting angry on them and criticizing? It’d rather worsen my character and cause trouble to my family life. I think it’s far better to try to solve problems than criticizing.

Q: Your blog is not so beautiful. There is no picture, very few links and nothing appealing. What do you have to say about it?
A: Yes I also agree that it’s not beautiful and it would be better if my posts have pictures with them. I don’t think outlook is important to attract readers. I actually don’t want to put any link in my blog without having good knowledge of that particular blog or site. And I will put some pictures in future. And all the pictures will be my own taken picture. I don’t like that copy paste business.

Q: Are all the events and characters in your blog real?
A: To the best of my knowledge all the events are real. I try my best to be honest. But the names are often altered. I can’t assure you about my name either… lol.

Q: Won’t it be befitting to your blog if you entitle it ‘Beggars.com’ or ‘The Beggars’?
A: Am I writing a bit too much about beggars? Maybe… But I won’t be writing about beggars all the time. Maybe when I start writing regularly about rickshaw pullers you would tell me to change the name again. I will think about organizing a vote for the perfect title of this blog. But then like our opposition party there will be many readers who would say there have been conspiracies going on in the poll. So that will not serve the purpose either. So it’s just fine with this title. Hahaha….

Q: Do you have any new area to write about?
A: For now, I’m hoping of writing about the education system of our country more and more. And I also want to write about the ways in which we can improve the educational environment of our country. Hopefully someone would be benefited by this attempt.
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The thing I disliked most at HSC was doing practical classes. I can’t say if I ever did any practical class attentively. I used to go to the practical class only if the Table Tennis room was closed. Even if I went to the class I used to pass most of the time annoying the boring teacher or doing something weird to make others burst out laughing. The only thing that students really cared about was taking the teacher’s signature on the practical notebook. And I didn’t even have any practical notebook. The teachers’ bullying words and warnings could never cause panic in me.

But I had to pay for that. After the HSC written exams other students who were busy taking preparation for the viva test and I was busy copying Rifat’s practical notebooks. I completed 2 subjects and my sister and younger brother completed the other 2. Rifat was very sincere in the practical classes. He never missed a single practical class. So his books were very reliable to copy. Just before the viva test date I managed to get the signatures on all the four subjects.

Amazingly enough I got better marks in practical exams than Rifat. When I told this story to my another friend Asad, he was not moved at all. He said, “it’s nothing. I didn’t attend a single practical class. I neither wrote a single page of my practical notebooks nor have them written yet I got better marks than you two.” I didn’t believe him and told him to explain.

Practical exams of 450 students of Chittagong College were taken in 9 different groups in 3 days. He took others practical notebooks that have been checked. Because of the huge number of notebooks it is not possible for the examiner to check all of them or even give signature on every page. So they usually give signature on the opening page and at the end.

Asad took beautifully written notebooks tore away the covers and cut the first and the last pages of every books and put new covers and bind the notebooks and give them his own name. And they are ready to be shown to the examiners. No taking boring classes, no writing disgusting notebooks and get the best result.
Ahh… if only I knew this system a year before.
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By nature I was totally unstable in my high school, I didn’t like my section because my close friends were in A and C sections. So I used to attend classes in those sections to make fun. And about the attendance? I never really cared about that.

Every teacher has his own invented approach to take the first class of his new students to win them. Some try to be humorous by telling some jokes and tell the same jokes to new students on the first class every year. Some try to sound genius, some try to be very tough, some criticize, some flirt, some praise the students. Their approach is different from one another.

One day, I was in a math class with my friend Nasir and it was a newly appointed math teacher’s class named ‘Hasan Sir’. He started his class with some very difficult math questions. All though the students of A section were the best among students of other sections, nobody could answer a single question. Then the teacher answered all the questions and explained them. I didn’t attempt to answer any, as I was busy gossiping with Nasir (Just trying to sound a genius by not saying that I had no idea of what the teacher was asking.)

On the next day Hasan Sir came to our class (B section). And to my amazement he started with those same questions. His first question was a tough one. But I immediately answered that. Then he said, “ Let me see if any one of you can answer this one…” I answered that too. Then he asked another and another. Without giving others even the time to think I answered them all quickly. It seemed to me that my teacher was getting a little worried then, as he was running short of questions and things were not happening according to his plan. So he said, “Hey you, yes that boy over there. You don’t answer any more question. Give others chance. It’s understandable that there would be one or two geniuses in a class of 150 students. But that doesn’t mean that they would answer all the questions. The others should also be encouraged.”

That was it. I became a genius. And this news of my being a genius went to the farthest corner of our college. Half an hour later, after the class a boy from A section came to me and said, “Are you Zahir?”
I said, “Yeah, Why?”
“No, nothing…" He said, "Actually I was just interested to meet a brilliant student like you.”
I said, "Oh…" (My hand automatically went to my forehead rubbing it with the index finger, abashed)

The boy then said, "I heard that you answered all the questions of Hasan Sir without making any mistake. How could you do that?"

I pretended to be smart and said, "Ohhh…. It was nothing…"


Don’t ask me what happened on the next day when Hasan Sir came in the class with some new questions.
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