Time to evaluate our balance sheet

Pahela Baishakh, a symbol of Bengali culture, arrives every year and is celebrated with great enthusiasm and gaiety irrespective of poor and rich; but it is quite different from the English Happy New Year in the essence of cultural heritage and values. A festive look exists all around on this auspicious occasion. We cheerfully look forward to welcoming Pahela Baishakh which is unique in the sense that it is participated by all. The day begins with panta bhat (stale rice) and fried Hilsha fish and many also take chilies and onion. Cultural portraits are observed in Dhaka University area including Institute of Fine Arts while various cultural programmes are arranged at Ramna Park area. The main musical programme of the day is presented by Chhayanat at the altar of the banyan tree in Ramna Park at dawn. We observe important events and days like Pahela Baishakh, Independence Day with great enthusiasm and gaity. But once the day passes in the calender, we forget everything. Questions should be asked-is it only a festival and what lessons should be learnt from this? This year, we celebrated Pahela Baishakh at a difficult time. Due to the Middle East uprising, many Bangladeshi workers have returned home with their evaporated dreams. There is a chance of remittance fall in the coming days and this is not a good sign for our economy. A contingency plan might be needed to facilitate those returnees. Moreover, we are besieged with many problems like over population, price hike, power crisis, gas shortage, corruption, widening gap between the poor and the rich and so on. Besides these backdrops, we also get ourselves divided in any issue. Another major problem today is extreme intolerance which is observed everywhere from the Jatiya Shangsad to the streets. One doesn't respect other and tries to humiliate other if he gets a chance. But we all love this country and the people proved this love during the Liberation War of 1971. People from all strata of life and belonging to all political shades and beliefs were united for this noble cause and fought the enemy. Thus we snatched independence 40 years back. But now there exists a huge gap between where we are and where we should be. We succeeded in the year of 1971 which was the greatest challenge for us. Still we can do a lot for creating a happy and prosperous Bangladesh. We all hope that the nation would move on the right way to peace and prosperity. For that, all, including political parties, government officials and general people, have to work together aiming a common goal where the political parties should keep their words, the government authorities should coordinate and implement those common goals and the general people should cooperate. On Pahela Baishakh, the businessmen evaluate their business performance and take account of their loss and profit through updating their accounting book traditionally known as halkhata. Similarly, this is the time to evaluate our national balance sheet after 40 years of independence. It's true that the country has developed in some arena but still a significant development is needed. That is only possible if we can sink differences amongst us and work unitedly for a greater national interest. The writer can be reached at e-mail: shafiqul0032@yahoo.com