For a safe travel home on Eid

Eid shopping in the metropolis has started picking up. We have to wait for some more days to see it hit the crescendo, when we will call it a shopping spree. Yet, one would feel the shoppers' heat even now on visits to the malls or traditional markets like the New Market, the nearby Gausia, or Mouchak.
The dormant Eid fever is also being felt in some other places.
And as the festival starts knocking at the door, with the village home-bound people getting prepared for their river journeys, these places will wake up to witness a kind of  rejuvenation race --- after one long year.
Over the last few years, the motor launches, large and small, that had carried thousands of passengers during the two Eid festivals, became worn-out; the engines now smack of the burden of age, the once shiny paints have begun coming off, with some on the verge of being dumped. Keeping aside the dreadful memories of mishaps, the motor launch companies have begun dreaming afresh, like in every year. Most of them look forward to the Eid-time bonanza, which beckons them with profits fatter than in the past.
Days are not far, when the riverside small dockyards opposite Dhaka's Sadarghat, or those on the bank of Shitalakkhya in greater Narayanganj, will see hectic hours of work. Nights will be off-limits to the area for two or more weeks. Sleepless mechanical hands and labourers in shifts will be found engaged in the vessels' renovation jobs. Many will replace the rusting sheets of the body with fresh ones, some will be called to put new coats of paint, with others changing various fittings in the cabins and large sitting halls.
Besides, damaged deck floors will be smoothed, electric appliances checked. But the main engine or the Sareng's iron wheel, now almost beyond repair, might fail to draw the required attention of the launch owner, despite being reminded of the possible hazards by the mechanics.
So much for the Eid-time vessels' getting a refreshing look. Ironically, a lot of would-be travellers cannot shake off the haunting spell of disasters, which a few of them had to pass through. Some had a close shave with death. Like in the previous years, all misgivings will be swept away as they visualise celebrating Eid with their near and dear ones at their village homes.
But truth keeps pricking somewhere inside. The river travels on the eve of Eid are fraught with lots of unforeseen dangers. Thousands of innocent lives have been lost in launch mishaps during Eid. The last year passed off without us having to see salvage ships pulling out submerged launches, small boats or trawlers, loaded with bodies, moving towards the crowded banks, TV footage showing dead women or children stuck in the vessel windows probably in their desperate attempts to come out. But this heart-rending spectacle has long been entwined with our Eid travels by river. In most cases, the causes of the tragic accidents are overloading of launches, the vessels' faulty design and inclement weather. Then there are the collisions of launches in the mid-river dark.
Routine probe bodies are formed. Some committees submit reports and recommendations. The story ends there, and all post-mishap, probe-related exercises turn out to be futile. We see in the next year, or the year after, the recurrence of the accidents. After all, these are part of life in this country. Seminars, view-exchange meets etc. are held round the year on finding ways to prevent the avoidable launch accidents, but to no avail. The cycle keeps moving, year in and year out.
As a nation, we have become inured to the sordid aspects of life. Pains do not move us, nor does the joy of living. That greed has completely overtaken us is a truth that we cannot escape.
This year's Eid-ul-Fitr falls in the late-monsoon. That time of the season is not hazard-free. Many rivers turn furious. Some are in spate, with strong currents. The unscrupulous launch owners have no qualms about these. They will be busy filling the ill-designed or aging vessels with frenzied passengers. Time cannot be riper for a windfall.
But the authorities can play its due role by being watchful much before the tragedies occur. They have a lot of time to send out their warnings to the launch owners, who appear to be prone to illegal practices while operating on the eve of Eid. To our dismay, both sides are equally blind and deaf.
shihabskr@ymail.com