The New Nation - Internet Edition

Short-story: Alternative

Abu Bakar Siddiquee

Shahed, Laila's cousin has come to London on a visit. At present he is a prominent figure of the country, known as an intellect also. As an established high official he is passing a gorgeous life.

Laila has been residing in London for the last twelve years since her marriage. In every two to three years she visits her homeland to meet her parents. Her husband is in British Government Service. Laila is mother of a child. She looks after her son, does all house hold works and utilize her leisure period in sewing to earn extra money. They reside in an apartment bought three years back. In fact, Laila lives a happy family life; her husband loves her very much who is an honest hard worker. Their son Hillol, born in London, inherited the complexion of Laila, may be a little brighter, with dark hair and black pupils. To Laila it seems that Hillol's eyes resemble Shahed's eyes having a depth of infinity. Day by day her son's look is getting deep to deeper, whenever Laila looks at Hillol it brings back memory of Shahed.

Shahed has come to London without any information; he searched out Laila's house. Laila was surprised to see him all of a sudden. She still remembers how Shahed in his student life used to come to their house to make fun and hullabaloo. He was a very jolly and lively person. One remarkable thing was that Shahed never used to stay for long in their house. Laila tried her best to touch Shahed's mind; but whenever Shahed's eyes happened to meet Laila's his deep vision would move away quickly, he would start a light conversation. Laila could never make any impression upon him nor could efface his memory from her mind. There was a sort of attraction in Shahed's appearance, character, wit, and restlessness.

After about twelve years Shahed has met Laila. Stepping in, he announced that he doesn't have time; he can spend two hours at best.

Shahed is always in short of time, he didn't change a bit! Laila thought. She still remembers the days when Shahed used to come in her parents house. Like a storm he would enter the house, gossip with every family member and leave all of a sudden; never he used to stay more than two hours. One day Shahed fell from a guava tree and sprained his ankle, even on that day he didn't stay longer. He limped with pain, rode a rickshaw and disappeared. He never let them know the condition of his ankle joint, whether it was a simple sprain or compound fracture of the bone and remained out of touch for long two months.

After a few months of that incident he became a Central Superior Officer in administration cadre. He was posted to Lahore. And after a year he got married. About two years later he met Laila's parents. He was then a Sub Divisional Magistrate of some Tehsil in Sialkot. There was no change in his behaviour; he was as restless as before.

'How are you, Laila? Have you finished your college term or still continuing?' He asked Laila.

Over tea he discussed with her parents about her marriage. After that some people came to their house, observed Laila as is the custom of land; and the marriage was accomplished within a month. The bridegroom was a doctor. Though Shahed was the matchmaker he did not attend the marriage ceremony as he could not avail the leave.

All the events of Laila's marriage happened like a drama; the sequences after that roll out more dramatically. Not more than a month had passed after marriage, Laila's husband died in a launch capsizes while he was returning to his working place from village home after enjoying leave. Darkness covered Laila's life and looked as though it would last forever. It seemed to Laila that a black curtain has been drawn in front of her that is never going to be lifted.

Really, a black shadow fell in front of her but not last forever. The darkness spread momentarily to change the scenario only. A new man came in her life. She married him and left for London leaving behind her beloved homeland, parents and relatives. Slowly she changed with time; many memories are fading out of her mind now a days.

Shahed will leave now. But Mr. Momin, Laila's husband, has not yet returned from the office. Moreover, they have been invited to a tea in her neighbour's house. The doorbell rang; perhaps Mr. Momin has come. Laila opened the door, she found Mr. Haque, today's host of the tea party who has come to enquire about Mr. Momin and Laila's delay. Laila introduced Shahed to Mr. Haque. Mr. Haque became very pleased; politely made a request,

'If you don't mind, Mr. Shahed, may I take the opportunity to invite you to the tea party?' Though Mr. Haque is staying for a long time in London, still he feels a strong relationship for his own countryman. Before Shahed could reply Laila glanced wistfully at him, which Shahed could not deny. Mr. Haque said,

'Well, I think we can move now. May be that Mr. Momin will come soon and join us. Mr. Sobhan, my university teacher, has already come. I shall introduce him to you.'

Laila locked the house, along with Hillol and Shahed reached Mr. Haque's house. Mr. Haque introduced them to the chief guest Mr. Sobhan saying, 'she is my next-door neighbour and he is Mr. Shahed.' Professor Sobhan didn't let Mr. Haque complete his sentence; in a lecturing style he said, 'I'm really pleased to be introduced with an attractive couple like you.'

Shahed's face reddened, he tried to say something while shaking hand with Professor Sobhan, but he could not decide what to say. Laila also has stretched out her hand to Professor Sobhan. After shaking hand with Prof. Sobhan she sat by the side of Shahed; Hillol has gone to the next room to play with other children. Professor Sobhan has been speaking loudly to the guests about the veracity of well-matched couple and happy husband-wife. His gravel voice resumed,

'A well-matched couple or successful husband-wife is an essential element to build a balanced society. Being an ideal husband-wife, ideal friends, and ideal companions for each other in their child's eye they remain as ideal parents and in the society they represent an intellect personality. For instance, we can talk of Mr. and Mrs. Shahed; such a well-matched couple attracts attention of you, me, and of every one at the very first sight.'

Mrs. Haque wanted to intervene; perhaps she tried to rectify the wrong impression of Mr. Sobhan, but her fainter notes drowned by the high-pitched tone of Professor.

Laila is sitting brushing Shahed. 'Still Shahed uses expensive perfume! How pleasant smell is wafting out of his body!' Laila thought.

Professor Sobhan continued,

'An ideal and happy couple is the edifice of its generation. A child usually follows whatever he sees which is an impertinent factor to build up his or her character. Modern scientific experiment says that after birth the child should be reared up in a musical environment, the harmonious rhythm and beat helps mental blooming. Again, we can take the example of Mr. and Mrs. Shahed. Their decent dress, eloquent gesture, measured talk that has attracted our attention will definitely charm their child also; and I'm sure this exquisite beauty will be manifested in their child's character.'

Laila has sat more intimately touching Shahed; her secret desire of whole life happened to come true at this moment, may be in a wrong way. Today she has got the off-hand chance to take revenge of her many years suppressed wrath against Shahed, her dream-hero. Laila moved a little brushing Shahed; her soft shoulder is touching Shahed's body. Mr. Haque is serving tea; he is embarrassed at the situation. By now the Professor has stopped his florid lecture and left for the washing room.

The doorbell rang; Mr. Momin entered the room. Shahed felt relief. He came forward and shook hand with Mr. Momin. After the introduction Shahed said,

'I'm waiting for you quite a long. Now I have to beg your leave as I have an important appointment, meet you some other day.' Without waiting for a reply he stepped forward. When his eyes fell on Laila, she laughed freakily and said,

'Please do come again whenever you get time. You must see me before your departure for Dhaka.'

By then Shahed got out of the house, started walking on the street in quicker steps, he had had enough.

Improving English at the HSC level

Md. Masum Billah

The results of higher secondary certificate examination got published on September 10 pleasing the students, teachers and guardians and the whole nation. Side by side it arose some questions as well. A large number of students with GPA-5 in HSC will be denied admission to their first choice in public universities and medical colleges and engineering institutes because their number is much more than the number of seats in those institutions. This upward trend of both pass rate and number of students shows every year. Every year it becomes a headache of the authority but the ever grasping poverty increase the number of drop outs gives a little bit solution to this problem. Still it remains as a big problem for us. With the increasing number of population we need to increase the number of educational institutions along with technical and vocational institutions to accommodate the mediocre learners. University Grants Commission's twenty-year (2006-2026) strategic plan for higher education suggests establishing at least 28 universities. At present 1800 colleges affiliated with National University especially those in rural areas do not get sufficient students because of their poor quality education, outdated curricula and academicians. Shortage of teachers proves another problem.

Many students with good results do not go for higher education because admission capacity of quality public universities is limited and new one are not being set up to accommodate the increasing number of good result achievers in HSC exams Only two new public universities were established in the last three years while HSC pass rate increased by around 17% during the period. Besides the number of GPA-5 holders rose four times since 2005.Around 4.6 lakh students passed the HSC in 2008 with pass rate 79.19 and 22045 got GPA-5 pass percentage shows more than 10% higher and GPA-5 achievers almost doubled compared to those of last year. So, a tough competition awaits aspirants for admission to all public universities like Dhaka University, BUET an fifteen medical colleges. Academicians suggest cancellation of admission test admission on the basis of GPA in SSC and HSC will lessen the suffering of the admission seekers. Here also question arises. Is our examination system leak proof? Is our examination of international standard? Does it show the real merit and creativity of the students?

We have 14, 750 seats in public universities, 17,330 in private universities , 1.65lakh in National University affiliated honours colleges and 2.34 in National University affiliated degree colleges. BUET, Dhaka University, Jahangirnar University, Rajshahi University, Chittagong University, Khulan University, public medical colleges, Dental College, leather Technology, Textile Engineering have only 20,000 seats and of these 885 seats in BUET, 4500 in Dhaka University, 1350 in Jahangirnagar Univeristy, 2500 in public medical colleges This year total 466570 students passed with 22045 GPA5. Out of 22045 GPA-5 holders 19108 students obtained GPA5 in seven education boards. 11140 got GPA5 last year.This year 13426boys and 8619 girls got GPA5. 12972 students got GPA5 from science group, 4590 from Business Studies and 1546 from Humanities group. This picture clearly shows that a huge number will not be able to receive higher education. We have to give a serious thought to this point.

100 percent passed colleges this year stand 678, last year the number was 434. Zero pass percentage college was 60 last year and this year this number is 41.

Combined pass rate this year is 76.19 and 65.6 last years. Pass percentage of boys and girls this year is almost same. This is encouraging picture. Still we have to cope with the text and modules of outside world so that our students can easily match themselves with overseas students.

This year the pass percentage of English has influenced the result tremendously. Now a question arises what magic wand we used to make the students pass in English unbelievably this year? Did our authorities use any extra measures to make all the students pass in English? Those who obtained GPA-5 what about their standard of English? As a global language its standard should be judged globally. International testing services TOEFL, TWE, IELTS etc. judge the standard of English in international perspective. It is based on four skills.

Only writing and reading skills are tested in our examination system. Other two skills remain absolutely neglected in spite of introducing the communicative English. When these two important skills are not practiced and tested at all in our public examination, how can we say that the standard of English has improved which indicates the better results of this year's higher secondary certificate examination?

BOOK REVIEW: Agriculture, Food Security and Poverty Reduction

Agriculture, Food Security & Poverty Reduction - an in-depth discussion on problems and prospects of Bangladesh agriculture

By : Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury

Published by : Ismail Hossain Bakul

Asia Publications, 36/7

Banglabazar, Dhaka - 1100.

Pages : 298

Price : Tk. 350.00

Agriculture, food security and poverty reduction make a vast subject that carries immense importance for the national economy of Bangladesh. The book, Agriculture, Food Security & Poverty Reduction, published in August 2008 and provided with latest information, is an in-depth and exhaustive discussion on the problems and prospects of agriculture in the country. The author has brought a wide range of relevant issues under the purview of discussion and analysis. He has examined the issues in the context of agriculture of the present century.

Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury was born in Comilla district in 1954. He had a brilliant academic career. He obtained Masters degree in Economics from Dhaka University in 1975. Chowdhury took a similar degree in the same subject from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague in 1990. He has a number of publications on literature and research on food safety, problems of elections in South Asian countries, gender issue, foreign economic relations, and environment and forestry. His works 'Election Codes of Conduct in South Asia', 'Towards Better Forest Management', 'Bangladesh Foreign Economic Relations' and 'Essays on Environment' have been prescribed as reference books in different universities.

Agriculture is one of the vital sectors of the national economy. Combined contribution of agriculture to the GDP in 2006-07 was 21.11 percent. Agriculture provides greatest employment opportunities. According to Bangladesh Labour Force Survey 1999-2000, 62.3 percent of total labour force is engaged in this sector. About 80 percent of the population are directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture. Bangladesh agriculture has the potential to feed the whole population through further introduction of modern technology, optimum use of land for food production, irrigation and flood control. This vital sector of the economy can contribute immensely to poverty reduction through creation of more employment opportunities. Bangladesh has no option other than attaining self-sufficiency in food production. It is the importance of agriculture that Chowdhury has centred his discussion around.

The whole discussion has been made in eleven chapters covering possibly all relevant issues. At the beginning of the book, the author has set the context of his discussion. He described the on-going food crisis in the world and food riots in some countries. At the same time, he mentioned how different national economies were adversely affected by the crisis. With reference to the UN, Chowdhury raised the caution that there was no possibility of immediate solution to the food problem. In relation to this, he dealt elaborately with Bangladesh's food and agricultural situation. However, he refrained from depicting a gloomy picture of the future. He is hopeful about the prospect of agriculture and reduction of poverty. He mentioned in this connection that Bangladesh was pledge-bound under the millennium development goal to cut hunger and poverty by 2015.

He dealt with various approaches toward food problem in today's world. Mentioning that one billion people in the world live under the poverty line at present, he described how about 40 percent of world's food grain is consumed by the livestock farms in developed countries and how more and more lands are being diverted for the production of crops for biofuel. But the hungry people have been given little room in the food equation. Jafar Ahmed showed the awful disparities in the distribution of income among the world people. In this scenario of world food distribution, he discussed the importance of employment generation, achievement of food autarky and reduction of poverty in Bangladesh.

In the third chapter of the book threadbare discussions have been made on the aims and objectives and strategies of different five-year and two-year development plans regarding crop production, fisheries and livestock, water development, forestry, flood control, irrigation, food management and rural infrastructural development.

Situation of poverty and hunger in the rural areas including percentage of population under poverty line, trend of changes in poverty situation, area wise distribution of poor people etc. have been discussed with due importance.

Chowdhury paid much attention to the agricultural sector. Importance of agriculture in the national economy considering its contribution to GDP, employment opportunity and foreign exchange earning is immense. Contribution of agriculture to GDP in the FY 2006-07 was 21.11 percent with 1995-96 as the base area. Refraining from giving any notion of even development of agriculture in this country of natural calamities, he mentioned that the growth of agriculture was not always satisfactory. He elaborately discussed the situation of agriculture including investment and sanction for agriculture and agri-industries, availability of food and strategies of food security and agricultural development etc. Climate change and its impact on Bangladesh agriculture have been discussed elaborately. Problems of flood control and irrigation and different projects got due importance in Chowdhury's discussions.

Almost 77 percent of the population live in villages. Development of rural infrastructure has, therefore, a direct bearing on poverty reduction there. Eight definite avenues under the PRSP aimed at reduction of poverty have also been discussed. Fisheries and livestock sub-sectors and forest resources have been dealt with separately to show their importance in poverty alleviation.

Defining food security the author discussed in detail availability of and people's access to food and nutrition. In relation to them situation of domestic production of food grains, projection of food production in proportion to population growth, production of fish and other animal protein, import of food grains, building food stock and strategies of food security under the first PRSP have been discussed elaborately.

As a conclusion to the long discussion and analysis Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury gave a detailed description of the existing situation of agriculture in south and Southeast Asia and the on-going situation in Bangladesh. It is a widely accepted truth that alleviation of hunger and poverty through growth of agriculture is a development strategy. It is possible to bring an end to food shortage and achieve self-sufficiency in food by increasing food production through development of technology and infrastructure. Flood-control, removing water stagnation, increasing irrigation facilities, reclaiming fellow land, developing physical and institutional infrastructure, expansion of income generating activities outside agri-farms are very much essential for the growth of agriculture. At the last leg of the book the author put some concrete suggestions as part of achieving the above goals.

Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury cited huge statistics from different sources in support of his arguments. But abundant use of facts did not make reading of the book tiresome. Rather use of statistics has made it a ready reference book. He cautioned against the mistake of lopsided development of the economy through giving one-sided emphasis on industries and negligence to agriculture. He is right to give emphasis on a balanced development of industry and agriculture.

'Agriculture, Food Security & Poverty Reduction' is an excellent piece of research work on Bangladesh agriculture. It has been published at such a time when agriculture has come to the fore with formidable challenges and bright prospects. Concerned agencies at public and private level may find the book helpful while making policies and planning the economy. It is likely to be of great help for researchers, teachers and students of colleges and universities and individuals and organisations working in the relevant fields. Readers keen on gaining an insight into Bangladesh agriculture will find the book useful

Reviewed by: Sarker Nazrul Islam