Irksome countdown to Eid festival

As the countdown to Eid-ul-Fitr gets closer, newer miseries are added to life in the capital. No matter if one goes shopping for the festival or commuting to work and back, the city residents find themselves stuck in myriads of deadlock. At one time, life goes haywire in the city.
As it is the month of Holy Ramadan, office hours follow a new schedule. Busy and important roads start witnessing traffic gridlocks with the approach of Iftar. In fact, roads in the city get chockablock after 4-5 in the afternoon. For people who have to travel by road daily for one or another purpose, the debilitating jams turn veritably dreadful. In fact, the times before the Eid festival are expected to be exuding preparative gaiety in a happy air. This is what distinguishes the days before a big festival. Ironically, the days leading to Eid are replete with annoyance and trouble for the city people while they are outside home. The metropolitan area of Dhaka appears to be caught in frenzied rush during the period. The scramble largely stems from the commotion around shopping centres. Shopping for Eid, like that prior to festivals in other countries, has long become a national ritual in Bangladesh. It speaks eloquently of the country's social stratification, fashion trends and also the economy.
But the flip side of the eager countdown to the mega festival is a plethora of premonitions filling the air. With the approach of Eid-ul-Fitr, and also Eid-ul-Azha, the second-biggest Muslim festival, we have to brace for depressing news one after another. Foremost of them all is the spectre of hazardous home travels by road and waterways. For over two decades, sinking of motor launches owing to overloading has been part of the pre-festival days. In many cases, ramshackle vessels sink in currents and wind speed a little stronger than normal. These accidents occur due to the operation of launches after applying fresh coats of colour to their rusted hulls, and doing some unavoidable repair works. The same goes with the long-haul buses. Head-on collision on highways is a recurring menace before the two Eids.
A bleak feature robs many home-bound people of the joy of Eid preparations almost every year. Advance tickets of trains normally vanish in just a couple of days after start of their sale. Thousands of disappointed and devastated people return home without tickets. The tickets, however, are available on the black market, at prices two to three times the actual price. Those who can procure the elusive tickets have to spend the previous night in queues at ticket counters.
  On the other hand, only a handful of lucky persons can collect bus and launch tickets at official prices. Most of the people, desperate to celebrate Eid at rural ancestral homes, are forced into buying tickets at exorbitant prices.
Over the last few years, a new kind of pre-Eid nuisance has been plaguing the capital. Just a week before Eid, people from both nearby and far away villages start swarming in the capital. Most of them pose to be wretched and penniless, and badger the city dwellers, on transports stopping at signals, for money. Some take position on busy footpaths, alone or with their families. They try their best to arouse the sypathy of the passersby. In the last couple of years, this type of begging in organised groups has emerged as a distressing menace before Eid. There are allegations that a large number of these beggars are not destitutes at all. Some, however, are really poverty-stricken, while some allegedly live at rented slums on the city outskirts.  According to many, this type of seasonal begging is, in effect, a practice of making a quick buck. Meanwhile, cheats, extortionists and muggers swoop down on a large number of innocent city people, and spoil their joyous countdown to the Eid celebration.    
It would be an understatement to say that the old and newly emerging woes have been crippling Dhaka Eid shoppers for the last 10-15 years. Apart from being plagued by massive disruptions in traffic movement, the otherwise pleasant Eid shopping has these days deteriorated to the point of an ordeal. The usual joy that goes with purchasing new clothes, shoes and other items has long vanished. Window-shoppers are violently pushed aside by the rushing crowds of people. Picking objects to one's satisfaction is discouraged by salespersons, as it hinders their business. As the Eid festival nears, the shoppers' crowd starts swelling. And one time it spirals out of control. A number of outlets have lately come up with the facility of online purchase of choice items by shoppers. It relieves them of many unbearable hazards.
Festivals visit us for a single day. The joy stays on. People's eager wait for great festivals is also part of the main occasion. Nobody wants to see the period before a festival spoilt by afflictions and gloom.   
shihabskr@ymail.com