I was bringing my feeble mother from my younger brother's house to my place that day. A total of four of us, including my parents and the driver, were in the car. My mother can't tolerate the air conditioning in the car for too long and she was having complication breathing. So, I turned off the AC and unlocked the car windows. The car was moving at a good speed; shortly after reaching Jatrabari, our car got stuck at a traffic signal. Before I comprehended it, someone came running and grabbed one earring from my mother's ear and traversed the road in front of me. Many were standing on both sides of the road watching the scene but no one showed the courage or desire to do anything. Suddenly, I was so shocked that before I could get out of the car and catch him, I saw that the snatcher had crossed the road and gone a long way. However, to normalize the circumstance, I told my mother not to worry and to deem it as a charity.
The current market price of the earrings will be 10 to 12 thousand Taka. I said tomorrow I will make my mother another earring. As soon as I unlocked the other earring, I saw blood dripping from my mother's ear from where the snatcher had snatched the earring. But in the suddenness of the incident, my mother was not in pain at all, even though there was bleeding. I wondered where human humanity has reached today where it does not hesitate to hurt others for its own sake.
About a year ago, I was in a similar catastrophe. Then I lived in Mirpur 14 and my daughter was studying in Charolata and Aloha in Mirpur 10. Unfortunately, that day my car was in the garage due to a problem and I was going to take my daughter to school by rickshaw. Suddenly, a motorcycle came from behind and a man tugged the laptop bag from my lap. I let the bag go without any resistance because if I held it tight I might fall off the rickshaw. Luckily I left the laptop in my office drawer the day before so the snatchers won't get much of the laptop bag except lunch box! However, my daughter was very scared in this incident.
These two incidents may have happened to me but it is a daily occurrence in Dhaka city. The snatchers are snatching people's belongings in front of the eyes of common people and even policeman. Ordinary people and the police all are just spectators, no one protests for an unknown reason. Today we as a nation have become so dumb and deaf that we all forget that there is a thing called human values. Everyone is so self-centered that we don't have the time or the will to see that what is happening to the person next to us. We all probably think it didn't happen to me so why should I take risks for the good of others. But there is no guarantee that the same thing will not happen to you tomorrow. Maybe that day you too will think like me. So, let's all protest against each and every injustice from our own place and then only our country will be much more beautiful and livable.
