ENGLISH ARENA

Unemployment Problem of Bangladesh Employment is an occupation which is productive of wealth. Unemployment is the opposite of employment. When a man is out of any kind of work, he is said to be in a state of unemployment. It has become a worldwide problem now. It is also a great problem in our country. Unemployment is a great social evil. For the peace and prosperity of social life, is imperative that all the able-bodied persons in a society should be engaged in one or other occupation and earn money to maintain themselves and their families. An unemployed man has to lead a vagabond life. Life becomes a curse and burden to him. Moreover an unemployed person has an idle brain which very soon becomes the devil’s workshop. There goes an old saying, “An idle brain is the workshop of devil.” An analysis of social evils shows that many of them have unemployment at their root. Unemployment is a worldwide problem. No country of the world can boastfully claim that she is absolutel...

Natural Calamities or  Disasters in Bangladesh   A natural calamity is the consequence of a natural hazard.   Bangladesh is widely known as a land of natural calamities. It is highly vulnerable to floods, famine, drought, earthquake, cyclones, and river erosions. These disasters have become regular phenomena which have been causing sufferings to millions of people for many decades.   People living in this country have been fighting against the frequent natural calamities for years after years. Of all these natural calamities, flood devastates our country every year. Every year during the monsoon, many parts of the country remain submerged. Among the causes behind this natural hazard, heavy rainfall during the rainy season is mentionable. It causes sudden increase of water in the rivers and canals which overflow their banks and cause flood. Sometimes violent cyclones, tidal bores, tsunami and melting of snow on mountains play vital role for oc...

A Street Hawker A street hawker is a common sight in the streets of big cities and towns. He is a familiar figure in our city life. He generally hawks goods by going from house to house or street to street. He carries his goods sometimes on the head, sometimes in his hands and at sometimes in a small hand-card. A hawker sells his goods with interesting cries in order to draw the attention of his customers. He knows the art of convincing them. Woman and children are usually attracted by his calls. He generally offers to sell toys, fruits, biscuits, vegetables, ice-cream, cakes, bangles, ribbons, clothes, utensils and fancy goods. On the contrary, there is another kind of hawkers who buy old newspapers, blank pots, old books, worn-out clothes from the houses. However, children are fond of a hawker while adults do not like him. By carrying the goods for sale in his hands or over his shoulders, he moves from door to door. Sometimes he goes from one street to another with his portab...

A Street Accident Among every day’s unfortunate occurrences a street accident is very common. In spite of every effort to prevent it, it happens everyday. Day before yesterday a terrible accident took place just before my eyes. A boy was crossing the road near the Science Laboratory. A bus with full speed was coming from the opposite direction. When the bus was a few feet away from him, the boy got puzzled and ran backwards. The driver tried desperately to hold the brake but failed. Suddenly it knocked down the boy and ran away in the twinkling of an eye. Everybody rushed to the spot. The boy was lying down on the street and a stream of blood flooded the poor road. I thought he was dead. Thank God, he was not. He lay senseless with the shock and wounds he received. Meanwhile the police arrived. The crowd began to hurl angry words, sharp comments at the unidentified driver. Then the police took the boy to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital by their pickup van.   This ho...

A Good Teacher No education is possible without the teachers. A good teacher is the most important person of any educational institution. A good teacher is, in fact, an ideal teacher. And an ideal teacher wins a place in the heart of a student and gradually turns to be a model. To her students she is a dependable guide. She leaves a permanent impression on everyone’s mind by her extraordinary qualities. What is so much glowing about her is her inexhaustible love for the students. To her the definition of a teacher is liberal and more comprehensive. She is a source of inspiration to her students. Students are fond of her striking personality and admirable teaching method. Her teaching methods are well planned, scientific and effective. Her convincing power is so great that she holds the students spell bound. She teaches like a successful actress. She has a clear conception about her subject.  Because of her subject knowledge she deserves high estimation. She is awarded the ...

My Favourite Book Books are the mirrors of many men and many minds. “A drop of ink may make a million think.” And a book is written by many drops. Such a book which made me think is ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ by the Nobel Laureate Ernest Hemingway. The charm of the story cannot be expressed in a nut shell. The central character of the story was an old man named  Santiago  who had a boy as his helping hand. But when he failed to catch fish for many days, the boy had to leave him under pressure from his par ents. So Santiago went to the sea all alone. At long last he caught a large fish but could not draw it up. After a long struggle he managed to kill it with his harpoon. But as it was larger than the boat, he tied it along-side the boat. On his way back it was attacked by sharks. He fought against them bravely with his harpoon and later with his harpoon and later with his knife tied to the oar. But when he reached the shore only the skeleton of the fish was left. Ye...

A Village Doctor A village doctor is a familiar and popular figure in our rural life. The man who gives medical treatment to the village people is known as a village doctor. He is a man of great importance in rural society.  He is well known to almost every villager. He is not a qualified doctor. He is a quack. He renders great services to the villagers when they fall ill. He starts his career with the experience he had gathered by working under a qualified doctor or in a dispensary. So he has a lot of practical experiences. He can deal well with the common diseases. He has a dispensary adjacent to his residence. It offers a poor show with an old almirah, a chair, a table and one or two benches. He sits in the dispensary, examines the patients and gives medicines. He receives the cost of medicine only.  He passes his days attending the patients from early morning to night. Very often he has to go out in the village to see his patients. Generally he goes on foot. In abs...

Boishakhi Mela A lot of festivals are held in our country round the year. Among these festivals ‘Pahela Baishakh’ is the most prominent common festival. It is celebrated on the first day of the Bengali new year. The day is celebrated with traditional festivities across the country. Baishakhi Mela is an integral  part of these festivities. It is a yearly common affair which reflects our culture and tradition. The origin of this fair was in the heart of our village. In the rural areas of our country it is called ‘Aarong’ according to their age long-custom. Now-a-days this fair is celebrated as Baishakhi Mela in our urban life. It is one of the main attraction of village life and life style. This mela prevails with various traditional products. Stalls of various things and articles of daily use are set up in an open square or under a spreading tree. Various handicrafts, wood and bamboo crafts, potteries, funny goods, sweets and so on are sold in this fair. In short shopkeepers p...

Tree plantation Tree plantation means planting trees in large numbers to save the environment and to make our life happier and healthier. It is important for our life and existence on this earth. Thoughtless destruction of our trees, woods and forests has put the country to a great disadvantage. They are destroyed mostly for being used as fire wood. This destruction disturbs our ecological balance. It leads to soil erosion. It deprives us of fruits and timber and causes economical loss. Besides heat, pollution, flood, famine, disease are the results of deforestation. We are aware how woods and forests bring rain, help our agriculture and prevent floods and droughts. Thus the havoc created by unscrupulous destruction of trees and plants must be made good by way of tree plantation. The programme of tree plantation is launched not only in the towns, but also in country sides. Every house, school, college, hospital, bank and other institutions are asked to plant trees. Seedlings and ...

A Rainy Day A rainy day is a common occurrence in our country during the rainy season. A day with rain is a rainy day. It is dull and gloomy. The weather is foul.  It is a day when it rains all day long. The sky is overcast with thick clouds and the sun is not visible. It rains incessantly and in torrents. No one can go out without an umbrella. Roads become muddy and slippery. Often water is logged here and there. Passers-by walk along with shoes in hand and clothes folded up. They have the risk of a foot-slip and a fall. They get drenched and have to stop midway. Poor people suffer as they cannot go out for want of umbrellas to earn their daily bread. A rainy day is a curse for a poor man. He cannot go out for his daily works. He has to sit under leaky roof. Students fail to go to school and if some of them go at all, they get wet on the way. So schools do not sit and they have a day’s holiday which they did not count for. Other people also stay at home idly and even cat...

A Tea Stall Tea is as sweet as idle gossip and as adhesive as prattle of folk-politics. A tea stall, as such, is a place of immense public interest. Ordinarily, it is a small shop where tea is prepared and sold. Like snacks are also served with tea here. It is found at every nook and corner of a village as well as of a town or a city. It is a common place at commercial areas, industrial areas, bus terminals, railway stations, ports, courts and educational institutions. Generally, it is decorated with a few chairs, tables and benches. A tea stall is usually kept open from early morning to late night. It is a place of din and bustle because everybody here talks and don’t care for others’ inconvenience. There are radios and cassette players for the entertainment of the customers. It is frequented by the weary passers-by, the tired office assistants, the fatigued labourers, the exhausted rickshaw- pullers as well as the students and political workers. All sorts of people go there t...

A Railway Station A railway station is an important link of the country where the trains stop to let the passengers get down and to get on board. In short it is a spot where trains halt for taking and discharging passengers and goods. As trains come in and leave at intervals, it is almost always busy and the noise of the station reaches the ear. A railway station has one, two or more railways according to the importance of communication. Every railway station has one or more than one platform. Trains stop alongside the platforms. Building or buildings accommodating different offices stand along the other side of the platform. Stationmaster’s office, booking office, ticket counters waiting rooms for passengers are generally housed in the building. [But in a small station the stationmaster’s room serves also as a booking office. In important stations people are seen waiting for tickets in long queues.] Most of the stations have tea-stalls, only some have bookstalls, restaura...

  Your Idea of Grameen Bank Grameen Bank is a name which has added a new dimension in banking ideology. It is an unconventional bank. Noted economist of the country Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus established Grameen Bank with a view to alleviating poverty from the rural areas. It functions by providing credit to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh . According to the theory of the founder, credit is a cost effective weapon for the poor to fight against poverty. The bank is rendering service to the rural poor and landless people across the country to make them self reliant. It provides loans to this section of people to start a small business or take up small-scale project so that they can earn and lead a better life. As per rules and regulations of the bank, the poor people interested in taking loans would have to make 5-6 groups and each group consists of five members. They would have a centre where the bank will work to give loans and receiv...

  The Role Of Women in the Development Work of Our country Women are now-a-days as important as men in society. They constitute nearly half of our total population. Earlier women were kept confined within the four domestic walls. They had then very little area to play their role. Now the environment has changed greatly. Our national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam praises women for their taking part in progression of the world. He says that what is good, great and prosperous for a country is done half by men and half by women. There can be no denying the fact that they too possess equal rights and duties as men do. They have noble missions to fulfill as men. If they get opportunity, their genius, power and capabilities will bloom fully. No nation can make real progress keeping a half of its population in the dark without the upliftment of women. Though belated, women are now participating in the development of our country. They are taking part in differe...

  A Bus Stand Buses carry people up and down the streets, roads and high ways. They stop at different places on their routes to take and leave the passengers. These places of their stoppage are known as bus stops. A bus stand is usually a place of great din and bustle. Buses arrive and depart and in the process, give rise to a hue and cry. The jostling of passengers, the cries of hawkers, the approach of street beggars, the altercations between the conductors and passengers are some of the disgusting features of a bus stand. Besides the hooting of horns, the roars of engines and the obnoxious smell of smoke make the place very uncomfortable. Moreover pick-pockets and frauds make traps for the busy passengers to snatch their belongings. At some bus stands, however, there are sheds for passengers to wait. These sheds also accommodate snack shops, tea stalls and even shops of books, journals, magazines and newspapers. All these are the common s...