'Photo session'
This letter is in complement to the letter titled "Photo session" by Syed Badrul Haque, Lalmatia, Dhaka published on January 5, 2005. I completely agree with you that the focus of the event should be the award winners not the power elites. I recall a similar incidence from the past. About 10 years ago, a reputed organisation arranged an award-winning ceremony for all the first-class-first students of the University of Dhaka. I was one of the recipients of the gold medals they distributed during a ceremony held at the Sonargaon Hotel. In the big ballroom of the hotel, they reserved a space in one corner for the awardees while the podium was occupied by the chief guest (a minister), special guest (another minister) and probably 10 other leaders of the organisation. In the front row of the audience were the families of those who were on the podium. Throughout the whole event, members of that organisation greeted each other, chatted with the power elites and influential members surrounded the chief guest most of the times. However, nobody seemed to care for those for whom the event was organised neither a single greeting, nor a simple "Hello" until towards the end of the event when the announcer called the awardees by name to accept the medal.
This culture needs to be changed.
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