If dreams were for real

Shamsher ChowdhuryWaking up from sleep in the morning, this writer saw the other day that there were only a few pedestrians passing by the front of our apartment building. There were only a few vehicles on the street running from one direction to the other with no sounds of horns blowing, cyclists were passing by whistling in a most casual manner without the fear of being hit and run by a bus or a car. We were pleasantly surprised; we watched in amazement as our six and eight year-old grand children waved at us while they were off to a school near our apartment. This writer wonders as to how that could be possible. Have all the kidnappers and rapists disappeared? There were no longer those luxury vehicles like the Pajeros and the Lexuses on the streets. There were no incidences of power outages, domestic gas supply was aplenty. We wondered if something was wrong somewhere, it was all too unrealistic. The hawker just delivered the morning papers. As this scribe was going through the headlines, he came across no news of mudslinging and character assassination amongst political rivals. He kept thinking whether all of them have gone holidaying and have taken days off their routine. In the meantime, we got ready to perform yet another of our daily chores, visit the nearby kitchen market to buy daily consumables. With great hesitation this scribe proceeded to enquire about the prices of a variety of vegetables; the vendor said, "Sir, times have changed, pick up anything you like, it is all between Tk 10 and 15 per kilo. This scribe was highly confused as to what to take and what not to. In utter confusion and panic five kilograms of each item were picked up, before rushing back home. This writer liked to share the good news with his loving wife. The children appeared excited with Eid knocking at the door. We ran out to the marketplace and bought a good number of choicest dresses. A beautiful Saree was also bought by this scribe for his wife. All this time this writer kept asking himself how things could become so cheap all too suddenly! He was overjoyed and decided to buy the long cherished pair of good shoes which he had wanted to buy for years. The entire family was now on the dining table with all kinds of food items laid out which we could not buy since costs were too high. As we were having our meal this writer kept wondering and told himself that this was too good to be true. This scribe has been retired from active service for some years now. As he was going down to have a glimpse of the outside world, and came out of the elevator, the guards and the gardener who have been hitherto not so spontaneous in greeting him, all too suddenly rushed towards him and greeted him most kindly. We kept wondering if this was the same place where we had been living for the last four years or so. Indeed, it all appeared to be too rosy and too good for comfort. This writer had been ailing with some debilitating sicknesses for a long time. He needed to have extensive medical attention and were worried over how to meet the high costs of Medicare. Here too good wife of this scribe suddenly came up with a smiling face and told him to get ready to move to Singapore for treatment and assured him that our daughter and our two grand children would also accompany. This scribe was completely dumbfounded and did not know whether to be overjoyed or cry. On that day we were also happy to see that the kingpins and the perpetrators whose negligence caused the death of scores of children due to taking of some paracetamol medicine have finally been hauled up and produced in the court of law in hand cuffs. At long last, there was light in the tunnel of justice. We saw a number of inmates of our apartment complex gathered in a corner of the parking lot and most happily talking about something. As this scribe joined them he found that a senior inmate of the complex was telling his audience as to how happy he was to learn that there was no threat of any earthquake in Bangladesh. The curious gathering then told the gentleman that how happy they were with that piece of good news and they wanted to know as to whether people, who were living in cracked and tilted apartment complexes, could do so without any fear whatsoever. The answer was one of absolute reassurance. How wonderful. Sorry to disappoint the readers that it was all a part of a pleasant dream. You see, this writer was having such a wonderful dream when his wife all too suddenly pulled the light weight comforter from over him and switched off the fan. You see dreams seldom come true but they do at times work as momentary source of happiness. For a Bangladeshi of his age this scribe has lived a full life, then why to bother about what is happening around him. You see the problem is, this writer happens to be the worrying type when it comes to matters relating to his beloved country and right now we are passing through some worst times of our lives. In the final analysis we should be grateful to our Creator for the fact that the gift of life is still ours. What we now need is good sense to prevail and a change for better in our degrading "attitude." Will that day ever come when we shall see more patriots and less of politicians amongst us? The writer can be reached at e-mail : caa342@yahoo.com