Anecdotes

I wasn’t sure about the title. I used it because it tells about things we learn about people. When I was eleven our father took us to Bangladesh. Our journey was a long one, in those days airplanes were not that fast.

We travelled from Rawalpindi to Lahore. The airplane from Lahore to Dhaka was larger. We had to put cotton wool in our ears to minimize the terrible sound of the aircraft.

We arrived after it seemed hours. Waiting to receive us were our maternal uncles and my father’s younger brother. All these people were overjoyed to see us I presumed.

We had a good time in the city of Dhaka. It was not where we spent two months of our vacation from school.

Our final destination was our grandparent’s home in a village named Cheora. We had an unbelievably good time. Here we met our uncles who were not at the airport, and our cousins who we met for the first time.

We took back great memories of our visit, I for one could not wait to tell my school friends in Rawalpindi about our newly found cousins.

All our excitement did not last too long. A year later our fate took a sad turn, Dad died, Mom did not want to stay in Rawalpindi, she missed her siblings. My eldest brother made arrangements to go back to Bangladesh for good. After a year and a half we were on our way back to my Mom’s long lost Bangladesh.

We arrived at the same Dhaka Airport. This time all those smiley uncles were absent. Why did we suddenly fail to make them happy? ‘A quiet voice made me aware your Dad was the attraction not you!’

I must mention my mother’s cousin was present, he really loved us I was certain. His name was Ali, I always liked teasing him, when we met him the first time. When I saw him this time, I exclaimed, ‘look Mom, Ali Baba Chalis Chor.'( Ali Baba and the forty thieves). Mom with a grin on her face said, ‘do not say this badtamiz(ill-mannered) he is your uncle.

My sweet uncle said, ‘she’s only having a good time, it’s all-right!

…………………………………………….. 🙂

DP Daily prompts: Second–Hand stories

what’s the best story someone else has recently told you(in person, preferably)? Share it with us, and feel free to embellish– that’s how good stories become great, after all.

This was a story told by a friend of ours who went to Miami, Florida, United States to spend a month in that warm place and to get relief from the cold snowy winter in Newfoundland.

He rented a car to move around and see all the places in there. He wanted to impress us he had gone to Florida, since he was an invited guest in our house we let him tell us about his fabulous vacation.

Unlucky for him he had some minor accidents while driving around in Miami, Florida,which is what we were led to believe. He was stopped by traffic police on more than one occasion.

To impress the traffic cop he said, “people from my community love Florida, they come in groups every year.”

The cop listened to him and remarked,”Well if they drive like you tell them to stay home and not bother coming to Miami, we don’t want to deal with the likes of you, one is enough.”

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/dp-daily-promp…d-hand-stories/

 

DP Daily Prompts: August Blues

As a kid, were you happy or anxious about going back to school? Now that you’re older, how has your attitude toward the end of the summer evolved?

Just like any other kid now or then, I felt the same fear, the question was always about who will be my teacher? Will my teacher be the strict Nun who spoke with her ruler. Fortunately I got a teacher who wasn’t a Nun, her name was Mrs. Quieros. She was an awesome teacher, she was straight forward but sometimes her words were pinching. One day she saw one of my classmates in a street,it did not please her too much, to make it worse he did not do his homework.

When she asked the reason ,he must have given a lame excuse, she was furious, she looked at him and yelled,”I saw you gallivanting the streets, you were not sick!”

We got summer holidays for two months, one year we had already spent one month of vacation where we lived. My Dad announced he was taking us to Bangladesh for two months. He thought we are going so far, our relatives would like to have us longer.

Arrangements were made we were off to our parents home for two months. We had a great time.

I was back in school a month late, I went to school terrified of the questions our teacher would ask, so I sat in my seat and tried to hide behind one of the classmate.

All of a sudden I heard the words: Chaman has arrived.

This was an indication I must explain why was I back after three months instead of two. I stood up and quietly went to her desk.

She asked ,”how long was your vacation, two months right, and after how long are you back?”

I replied three, she gave me a whole bunch of homework and sent me back to my seat.

I skipped school if my homework was not done, I was afraid of the punishment.

When I was older though the fear of punishment didn’t exist, we were old enough to be responsible, if we didn’t study the fear of failure made us do our work.

My attitude changed I knew I had to do well every year and after completing school I’d be competing with others for a job. This feeling kept me from wasting my time. In other words I grew up, I never skipped classes.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/dp-daily-prompts-august-blues/

DP Daily Prompt: Trick Questions

A Pulitzer–Prize winning reporter is writing an in–depth piece–about you. What are the three questions you really hope she doesn’t ask you?

The three questions I really hope she wouldn’t ask me are: 1. Who is your favorite person?

2. If you had a choice where would you spend

your vacation?

3. How many strange people did you meet in 

your life, who is the one person you liked?

Possible answers: My favorite person changes every second, you can understand why I want to avoid this question.

If I had a choice I’d stay home day and night,watch TV, read a book and catch up on my sleep.

The third question is better than the first two, I meet strange people all the time how can I say how many or if there is one who is my favorite.

The Pulitzer–Prize winning reporter will have to find someone else to answer her questions, I’m certainly not capable of helping her to win another Pulitzer–Prize!

k: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/dp-daily-promp…rick-questions

Holidays in Montreal five sentence fiction

VACATION

After nine months of  gruelling hours of teaching , Nadia was excited the school will close for two months of summer holidays.

This meant sleeping in, watching TV ,going for walks and hanging out with neighbors,delightful she told herself.

In the afternoon her husband came home, he told her, “We are going to Montreal to spend the holidays”Nadia was exceptionally happy, she sat and quickly wrote all the places she’d visit this time, which she was not able to on their last visit.

Montreal she thought,’La belle de la province’ she started dreaming of going to the “Farmer’s Market”, she’d buy the delicious cheese bread, eat at the cool restaurant there, this time she made up her mind to eat poutine.

She fell asleep thinking about her trip, she dreamed her luggage was lost and she was frantic, she started yelling what am I going to do without my clothes, her husband shook her, when she awoke, her husband said,”you were dreaming honey, we will go on our vacation next week.”

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/holidays-in-mo…ntence-fiction/

Comilla My Hometown

Maharaja (Photo credit: Nina Klein)

Kazi Nazrul Islam, the revolutionary Bengali Muslim who is now the National Poet of Bangladesh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Comilla Bypass. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Comilla Cadet College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Comilla Medical College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Comilla Maynamoti Bihar বাংলা: কুমিল্লা ময়নামতি বিহার (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Comilla Victoria College academic building (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Comilla Maynamoti Bihar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Susan,Alphie and Gepetto,before I begin today,I would like to share a poem written by my favourite poet,Rabindranath Tagore.He has written numerous poems in his lifetime. My mind tells me to pick this one.

Closed Path

I thought my voyage had come to its end

at the last limit of my power,—-that path before me was closed.

that provisions were exhausted

and the time has come to take shelter in a silent obscurity.

But I find that thy will knows no end in me.

And when old words die out on the tongue.

new melodies break forth from the heart

And where the old tracks are lost,

new country is revealed with wonders.     Rabindranath Tagore

I would like to take you back to the year 1905.A communal tension spread when a Muslim was shot during the partition of Bengal in 1905.On 21st November 1921. Kazi Nazrul Islam , a very famous poet of Bengal composed patriotic songs and tried to awaken the people of the town to protest the visit of  Prince of Wales in India.There were other major incidences,when a sizable number of people were killed.There is nothing strange about that. What we  the citizens of the 21st century, must try to stop wars,they just bring out the evil nature of human beings.

Comilla covers a total area of 11.47 square kilometers.It is bounded by Burchiganj and Tripura on the North,Laksham and Chauddagram  on the south, and Barura on the west.The major rivers that pass through Comilla are Gumti and Little Feni.Comilla is a hub of road communication for the eastern part of Bangladesh.One of the oldest highways of the Indian sub-continent ,the Grand Trunk road passes through the city.At present the most important Dhaka-Chittagong highway by-passes the city from the cantonment to Podua Bazaar.

“Gepetto,there are a lot of names which will sound strange to you,I would like you to make a note of them.When you are back in school you can give your friends a quiz,see how many of them they can pronounce.It will be a good exercise for the brain.” Gepetto was on his feet searching for his notebook, “What a neat idea,he thought.”

Tourism

Comilla has a number of tourist attractions.There are various archaeological relics discovered in the district.They are preserved in the Mainamati museum.There is a red soil rock ,it is named Lalmai Pahar.It has an ancient Chandi temple on the summit.Another temple, the Jagannath temple built by Maharaja of Tripura is a tourist attraction as well.

My father told my mother that we should settle in Comilla.My Mom liked the idea,her home in the village was near it.  My brother Shams bought a house.We moved into the house from our Grandpa’s home in the village.My younger siblings went to ,”Our Lady of Fatima Convent School.” Two of my brothers went to Comilla Zilla School. It was a very good school.The headmaster told me,my father was a student of this school as well. When I gave him a puzzled look.He described my father ‘wasn’t he tall and thin’.I knew then he was right.

Comilla was a small and quiet town when we lived there.at that time they had a few schools and two colleges. Now there are a lot more people.And they have a lot of schools and colleges and universities.When I went for a visit,I was surprised to see how much it is developed.

For me it was fun to be there even if it was for a short while.I remembered going to college near my home.I could hear my professor telling us about Civics.I grew up in a large family,making fun of people was what we thrived on.Karim Sir would pick up his book,he wore a large  round pair of glasses, get up on the platform to go to his desk and would look from side to side making sure we were not up to any kind of mischief. Then his daily routine would start, Civics from the Western point of view there was always a very loud emphasis on the words,  “western point.” ,then I had the Urdu Professor,who used his eyes not his tongue, to speak. I would come home and act it out.My mom would be furious,she said,” bad tameez,you should respect your teachers.” Now at my age ,sixteen will not come again,when I laughed and joked about my Profs.who certainly taught me what I know. I sometimes go back to my childhood to make sure everyone including Gepetto knows how evil I can be.

Okay my good friends Gepetto looks tired,Susan wants to learn more about my little town, Alphie hasn’t opened his mouth yet,I am afraid to ask.It has been quite a pleasant ride.We thank God and all His supreme creation for putting up with me,Ranu the guide extraordinaire and her little friends,Alphie,Susan and Gepetto,So long,till we meet again!

Comilla (Photo credit: Wikipedia)