Lack of civic sense pathetically exposed

If lack of civic sense is at issue, the Dhakaites are likely to emerge at the top of the list, if not the ultimate champion, among the citizens of global cities. That Dhaka has been the most unliveable city next only to Damascus -- the Syrian capital for its raging war -is not for nothing. Like city like people or the vice versa. This means that the assurances by people in power or city fathers (not one but two now) -who are unfortunately not as powerful as they were supposed to be - to turn the capital city into tilottama (exquisitely or incomparably beautiful) Dhaka are nothing but vacuous.
Beautiful people should be able to build up a beautiful city. But 'beautiful' here does not mean physical features alone. People need rather to have a beautiful mind. Unless cultured enough, enlightened enough, courteous enough with a heightened civic sense, no people can keep their surrounding or environment clean and orderly. People who chew betel leaf with areca nut, lime and jarda (seasoned tobacco) and feel no qualms about spitting from bus window, on walls beside staircases or anywhere they like can be anything but cultured. In Dhaka it may appear that people are on a spitting spree -whether the perpetrators chew betel leaf or not.
One of the incumbent mayors have placed very attractive small, round and coloured dustbins hanging from supports so that bits of rejected refuge can be deposited in them. But when tons of bits and pieces of papers, packets of all kinds of discarded goods and polythene bags are left littered all around, such hanging refuge pots make a mockery of themselves.
A cosmopolitan city demands cultured behaviour from its inhabitants. But when people do not feel ashamed of themselves in responding to nature's short call on the side of roads or at road corners in full public view, you know there is a long way to go before its citizens can claim to be civilised enough. Public toilet or urinals are conspicuous only by their absence. One wonders how the city fathers have failed to give priority to constructing an adequate number of these facilities in order to spare people their shame in an emergency.
Too many people are competing for too little space here. And this is at the crux of the problem. There is a tendency to go ahead pushing and elbowing others behind or down. When people collide with each other or someone steps on other people's toes or hit from behind in a frenzy, there is hardly any question of asking for pardon or expressing regret. There are, of course, exception to the rule and some people really learn to say sorry when it is the most appropriate word to use. But the majority do not even bother to utter it.
Most people could not care less if their habit or action produces strong dislike in the man or woman sitting or standing next to them. Some people walk while smoking and the smokes they exhale cause serious annoyance to non-smokers walking behind. Either they have to stand behind or run for cover when the smoke is blown towards them. Then there are some who feel no qualms about inserting their fingers in their nostrils or in order to scoop the accumulated filth with fingernails. Others wrap a small piece of paper to insert in their ears to bring out wax and still others chewing betel leaf and nut have match sticks or similar other devices to bring out residues of the combined formula.
If these are habits and practices disgusting enough, one at least have the consolation that such people belong to a segment yet to know the finer elements of life and courtesy associated with those. But when educated and well-dressed people start sneezing without covering their mouths or make horrendous sound before spitting, one cannot help taking serious exception to such behaviours. Of late another nuisance has invaded Dhakaites' life. Not only students but office-goers carry bags of considerable sizes. Most of the time, those are slung from their shoulders. The bags hit people in awkward places right and left and their carriers are totally unconcerned. It becomes particularly lethal when bagwallahs get on board a bus and negotiate the passage in between the two rows of seats.
Then there are people who walk in crowds with their two hands pointed ahead so that the fingers continue to pinch the person right in front. It is intolerable in the same way a rickshaw behind you continue to hit yours as vehicles start moving slowly in long queues. It is not uncommon to encounter odd situations where water or other objects are thrown out of the window and an unsuspecting pedestrian either gets splashed or hit.
    The list is incomplete but at least it is representative of the lack of civic sense people woefully betray.