Cricket celebrations

However, another shock hit me when I saw a report on the TV that the two main rival political student bodies in Dhaka University united in jubilation and attended a musical concert in celebration of Bangladesh cricket team's victory over India in the second ODI match, on the same day that our neighbours were going through a mind-boggling tragedy. I cannot help criticising the news editing, as the news was written with a praising and encouraging tone.

Let me clarify my point. The victory in that match is something that all Bangladeshis can be proud of. But that pride cannot, under any circumstances, take over our sense of gravity and responsibility that we owe to the rest of the world at the moment. Mankind is mourning the deaths of 30 thousand or more (across seven countries) and devastation of hundreds of thousands of families. Lands are not only being flooded by the Tsunami waves but with the tears of the inhabitants as well.

Can any sensible person ever justify a concert on the occasion of victory in a match at such a time when nations all around us are traumatised by the aftershocks of great calamity? How insensible can we get? And to add salt to the wound, the concert was organised by none other than our future leaders of the nation, the builders of tomorrow (as some would call them) the intellectuals, the educated --- the students of the most prestigious university in Bangladesh, Dhaka University.

What shame! What disgrace! I, for one, apologise to the rest of the world on behalf of the forever unfortunate dim-wit organisers (participants and audience too) of the concert and send out my heartfelt sympathy to my dear neighbours.