Note: Before you readers venture into this little piece of writing, please be aware that these are my opinion and there's a possibility that you might not like what I've written. So, if you don't like what I have to say, please don't read it. This is written from observation and I've decided to put them here.
This
place, this city…is not what I remember it used to be. It’s a city of savages,
waiting for the next bad thing waiting to happen; its people lurking in the
shadows waiting to make the next move on its equally dangerous prey. Has it
already become too visual of the place I still call home? Maybe it’s a matter
of perception or maybe it’s because of the fact how things are at the moment.
Words really don’t do justice and paint the exact picture I have in my mind
when I go out on the streets every day. It’s ruthless, it’s dirty; it’s
dangerous and vile. It’s sad to think I would ever stoop down to the level
where I’d be forced to label my city with these words. Think of this as a rant,
a visual journey or just a personal “street view” through the eyes of a person
whose idea of his home town has drastically changed.
I am not a
troubled person or so I would like think. I am just a normal person, just like
thousands of others living in the same city. Maybe I am privy to some
privileges than others but I count that as my blessing most definitely. When
you go out on the streets, you’ll clearly see a chaos of the most deranged
form. I shudder to think how people cope with this on a daily basis. It’s
almost like a beautiful tragedy, a travesty, in the likes of a Shakespearean
play.
When I set
out for work, especially on a Sunday, there’s a weird sense of gloom in
people’s faces. I don’t blame them; you are getting ready to go to work on a
blazing summer day with streets full of obnoxious people and raging chaos. As I
step out to walk towards the first available rickshaw, I’m already half
drenched in sweat and covered with layers of dust. While walking down the road,
I would invariably receive glares and stares from grown men on the road. I can
understand why men would leer at women on the roads but a man starting at
another man is just unacceptable. Then I started thinking about what was wrong
with a lot of men in our city and came up with one thought: this habit of
staring at men, attractive women, goats, dogs, is inherent. A lot of men in our
city give very dirty and lewd looks to women on the streets and pass
disgraceful comments which would put their own mothers to shame. I am very troubled
when I write this but the other day I saw a couple of men leering at a woman on
the street who was wearing a hijaab.
This is the pits! My insides cringe to think what they must’ve said to each
other as passing comments while they were doing a X Ray with their eyes.
While I’m
making my way to work or even coming back home from work, it’s literally a
struggle between man and machine. Traffic never seems to get easy on the roads
and the behaviour of people seems to reach new heights of disgust and despair.
You would think that on a busy road, jammed with rickshaws, cars, buses and
stupid, daredevil people with no care for their lives would try and make things
simple, if not easy. Rather, drivers keep blaring their horns with the sense of
a gnat and rickshaws try to budge in from any corner inhumanly possible to try
and be just an inch further than where he was previously stationed. I observe all this like a fly on the wall,
trying to be mute and not anger myself and lose my cool on an already scorching
day.
I think of
these people and the fact that they don’t have decency and common sense; it
makes me lose faith in the goodness of a nation that is supposed to be one of
the happiest countries in the world. Frankly, when rankings like this come out
based on metrics like life expectancy and experienced well-being, it doesn’t
mean jack to me. When the country is torn and divided between political parties
and religious rifes, it makes me think that we as a country have been failing
to bring some stability for the last 30 odd years. We have failed to bring
“real” progress to a country which should’ve been thriving. I am not a
pessimist, but reading this you might even curse me, claiming the fact that we
are an independent country who fought for its land, language and freedom. While
growing up, I was never properly taught how the country fought for its language
and how East Pakistan became Bangladesh. Of course I know what happened but to
me there’s a huge disconnect about what I know and how I feel about it. Frankly,
I don’t give a fuck anymore. I’d rather be a fly on the wall.
