A lot of people take pleasure and pride in the "Rules are meant to be broken" mantra. It was almost a credo in the O and A level days. Recently, I have been looking around me and finding some rules that still make me mad!
- You can book a practice pad, the minimum is 4 hours. A 'practice pad' just means that place where a musical band can get together to practice or 'jam'. These places have a drum set and the neccessary heavy electronics like amplifiers and a mixer. But 4 hours! There are often cases where two bands get together to share these sessions, where 2 hours are just enough for some of us! Even one hour time spans would be good to have some fooling around sometimes! I miss the pads back in Malaysia, where half-an-hour was the minimum.
- Go Far OR No Go. The taxis, no matter how many wheels they have have some weird rules they abide by. If you are not going somewhere really far, so that their meters run to an amount of takas 50 or more... they are most likely not to take you!
Say from Kakoli Bonani to somewhere in Gulshan 2, their meter would probably not run at all, thus making the fare Taka 12 (three-wheelers) or Taka 15 (black cabs). Even though they would not take a customer that close, they will gladly run that distance without fare looking for the big catch!
This is now becoming quite a problem since Rickshaws are being banned from certain places more and more.
- Rain! No Go!. What happens when it rains! I have my feet wet, my jeans are soggy at my feet, there is dirt and mud there, I am gradually reaching the point of being drenched, and all taxi walas and rickshawalas are denying me their services. Or hiking up prices to tremendous heights. Usually, they do not want to go! What is it about rain that so turns them off!
- Dress Codes. The food shop Coopers have recently put on signs saying no 'Lungis' (some may be more familiar with the word "Sarong"). Others have signs saying "The Authority Reserves the Right Of Entry" ..which basically means if they dont think you are upto par with their set of standards, they will not let you in. Some social clubs also have these kind of rules. Chittagong Club does not allow anyone in without collars, shoes and trousers from evening. Ali Zaker once wrote an article in the Star's Weekend Magazine about another club that would not allow him in since he was wearing paijama punjabi!!!!
[DISCLAIMER: This whole post is inspired by this post.]
- You can book a practice pad, the minimum is 4 hours. A 'practice pad' just means that place where a musical band can get together to practice or 'jam'. These places have a drum set and the neccessary heavy electronics like amplifiers and a mixer. But 4 hours! There are often cases where two bands get together to share these sessions, where 2 hours are just enough for some of us! Even one hour time spans would be good to have some fooling around sometimes! I miss the pads back in Malaysia, where half-an-hour was the minimum.
- Go Far OR No Go. The taxis, no matter how many wheels they have have some weird rules they abide by. If you are not going somewhere really far, so that their meters run to an amount of takas 50 or more... they are most likely not to take you!
Say from Kakoli Bonani to somewhere in Gulshan 2, their meter would probably not run at all, thus making the fare Taka 12 (three-wheelers) or Taka 15 (black cabs). Even though they would not take a customer that close, they will gladly run that distance without fare looking for the big catch!
This is now becoming quite a problem since Rickshaws are being banned from certain places more and more.
- Rain! No Go!. What happens when it rains! I have my feet wet, my jeans are soggy at my feet, there is dirt and mud there, I am gradually reaching the point of being drenched, and all taxi walas and rickshawalas are denying me their services. Or hiking up prices to tremendous heights. Usually, they do not want to go! What is it about rain that so turns them off!
- Dress Codes. The food shop Coopers have recently put on signs saying no 'Lungis' (some may be more familiar with the word "Sarong"). Others have signs saying "The Authority Reserves the Right Of Entry" ..which basically means if they dont think you are upto par with their set of standards, they will not let you in. Some social clubs also have these kind of rules. Chittagong Club does not allow anyone in without collars, shoes and trousers from evening. Ali Zaker once wrote an article in the Star's Weekend Magazine about another club that would not allow him in since he was wearing paijama punjabi!!!!
[DISCLAIMER: This whole post is inspired by this post.]
4 Comments:
those incantations you have there are so true....especially those bits about taxi-oppression...as for jam sessions ... teenage "BANGLA MEDIUM" kids are not too far behind....infact us bangla medium dudes have to be knowledgable about so many things in order to compete and survive that we might call ourselves "jack of all trade,master of some"..there are many "rich" and "josephite" bangla medium kids who also buy out jamming joints at bangla motor(so i've heard)and have non stop electrification for their fancy named bands like"corvidae" or "reign-of-anarchy"....and whats the problem about rains man? when lets say you are giving your HSC in farmgate with radiating heat outside,you wish you were the rain-drenched rickshaw-walla yourself.
as for dress-codes...screw coopers...and as i said in rifat bhai's post about dress- code-lunacy:-" So basically its "maal" thats is the constant here..everything else are variables...money can and will ensure everything....the guy who said "Money has, nestled in itself a great evil that can't be forseen"-is long dead now..and so is his quote....so dev a legion of monetary possesions and,bro you can buy out the filth that once shunned you."
Wel, the rickshawala i can sympathize with... but when he IS wet.. might as well earn a few bucks at it? wouldn't that be a smarter thing to do. The CNG and Taxi walas have no excuse i see fit other than their ..maybe... they want to enjoy the rain alone from the privacy of their vahicles? I donnnooooo....
Bangla kids are or were a mjority in these areas (jamming and all) ... If u notice the past of the 'band scene', few were from English mediums (notably there was one who decided to call themselves Cryptic Fate). Nowadays there might have been a turn of tables... i cant say exactly tho still.
oh oh... i meant to say Bangla-medium when i said 'bangla kids' up there... coz we are all bangla or bangal kids... just in different types of schools.
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