Rukhser Ahmed
Undergraduate student, Environmental Science and Management, North South University (NSU)
E-mail: rukhserahmed@gmail.com
No matter how melodious music you set for an alarm, it’s always annoying to get up for work. While alarms make me annoyed every morning, a cute voice calling “…apu! Eta ki? Eta-eta-eta?!” of a 2 years old girl, ‘shoma’ makes me smile again. She keeps asking questions repeatedly until I answer each of her questions. So, my morning starts with the daughter of our maid, as she accompanies her mother to our home. But today, my home was calm and boring. Me and my mom panicked a lot until we got to know that they are safe. After a while, I went out for my school. If any cartoonist was told to draw me , he would surely draw Tom, the Cat, with toothpick holding its eyelids to keep awake.
Struggling to keep awake and looking out for a mishap while coming downstairs, I stopped abruptly right at that one stair on hearing a thunder like voice. The voice continued to strike more harshly “You just need an excuse for a leave! No one died from your family, if I’m not wrong! If it’s me who has to do all the dishes even after hiring you, I don’t need you! You’re fired!” I went to the doorstep out of curiosity and met the landowner’s wife. I saw rage in her eyes while she hanged up the call. It was obvious that she was talking to her maid. As she saw me, she kept whining about their ill-motives and how troubled she is because of the unwashed dishes of a party last night.
Being a resident of Mirpur 12, I was aware of the incident of burning about 4000 houses at midnight. I was well aware why Shoma didn’t wake me up today. I was so shocked at the landlady’s response that I stood still for 2 seconds staring at her. Just to be sure, I asked her if she knew about the incident. She squeezed her eyebrows and replied “Oh, yes! That’s really sad! but you know, they are uneducated morons! It’s not surprising that someone foolish might be responsible for the fire spreading there. My maid just told me that no one from her family is dead! Why should I consider her for missing the work today?”
Before I could reply, she rushed with her car keys to office and bid me farewell within seconds. Even if I got time. maybe I wouldn’t have an instant reply to such inhumane words. I wonder if she could go to work if her whole area was burnt into ashes. I wonder if she could leave her neighbors and relatives crying within their burnt belongings or hugging the dead body of a child.
It’s sad how these concrete buildings take away emotions from the high nosed city-dwellers. At the end of the day, slum dwellers are just the puppets for high class societies to meet their demands. Maybe we could never give them their intrinsic values they deserve. Their tears are always confined to some photographer’s click, reporter’s articles or a headline of a newspaper but never beyond that. They’re the ashes we throw away, after cooking our desires.