Biography 306: From the roof.

 Once upon a time, our house was the tallest building in the neighbourhood. It was a five-storey building. From the roof, we could see the neon sign "Allah" at the Baitul Mokkarram masjeed from the Bashabo area. We also had a view of the city skyline of Matijhil Commercial area. On the opposite side, we could see the rural parts of Dhaka, mostly covered by green fields, water bodies, and a few shaded houses.

One day, I took Boro Khala (my aunt) and Dola Apa (cousin) to the roof with all my sisters. We took some pictures together. There was a concrete seating area on the roof. We all sat there and snapped some memorable photos.

My mother planted some trees on the roof — like guava, henna, and pathor-kuchi — along with some flowers. Everybody loved the view from the roof. It's gone now, replaced by high-rise apartment buildings.

The city should follow some basic steps to remove snow or water.

 Whenever a snow or rain warning is issued, the city should clean up all the drainage systems, the roadside water flow area, and other areas to prevent floods.

The city should be strict with the sidewalk rules. Every household and organization should clean up and put salt on the sidewalks around them. People seem not to care about the rules.

Before starting to clean up all the snow, the city should make paths for bus stoppages, where people should get up and down from the bus, the entrances of any organizations, and sidewalks (where no organizations or households are responsible).

After the snowstorm, clean up and open the path again to allow the melted snow to flow. This will help reduce snow and water before cleaning up the entire area.

The City should build some condos

 I think the city should build its own condos on its own land. This way, it will ensure that the condos are environment-friendly, managed and maintained properly, have good security, no extra fee or high rent, and people from different economic backgrounds can live there peacefully.

This will give the City an extra permanent earning source and let them set an excellent example of how to build and make a profit without any greedy policy.

Attended the City of Toronto budget meeting

 The event’s objective was for councillors to listen to any problem or concern on the budget from the Toronto inhabitants. I have heard about several issues arising by ordinary people, like needing an elevator in Scarborough Station; the new budget should not give extra money to the Police; it should go to the community to stop the overdose drug problem, gender base problem, to disable people as they are not getting enough money to survive. TTC shouldn’t put any racist message to South American People, and they misuse their money, etc. The community reacted adversely to giving a considerable extra amount to the Police in the new budget proposal.

In this event, I saw several people come to say that the police shouldn’t get the extra significant amount of money. Instead, this amount should go to the community. Some specifically said that it should go to the drug overdose problem. The younger generation needs more recreational activities, mental health support, help to eliminate poverty, etc. One asked to give this money to solve issues of gender bias. Canada is a multicultural country, though it still has gender-based oppression. A disabled person called online. I couldn’t see him but heard his voice and understood he even had difficulty speaking. He said he gets much less, and no one can survive with that money. So, the money should go to disabled people. I found that everyone agreed that the extra money shouldn’t go to the Police department; it should go to the community to make Canada a better country and solve the violence problem.

A country needs to make policies based on its population

In a good country, government make public places, accommodations, hospitals, police stations, parks, markets, libraries, etc for its inhabitants. With time, if the population grows or is reduced, change of people's choices and for any other reason, the government changes the country's infrastructure, adds new things or demolishes some. They did this based on people's preferences or needs.

If Canada needs more people to work, then it will obviously welcome immigrants to live here. If a new population is added from different cultures, then the country needs to change and add new infrastructure to adjust to it. Otherwise, every place will be too crowded and difficult to manage, increasing people's disappointment in the government, labour misdistribution, traffic problems, unemployment problems, unclean areas, etc.

So, regardless of the country's population, everyone should have proper facilities to live a good life, no matter when they came to the country (two years ago or 200), what their culture is, or what their race is.

The city should do more about the rivers

 If we have a river running between our city or running around us, then we are very lucky. As all ancient cities were beside the river, most of our cities have rivers. In some cities, they killed that river. Some cities care for those rivers very well by maintaining their banks and surrounding areas.

In my opinion, we can use this river not only for beautification but also as a travel spot or, moreover, as a city transit.

Yes, no matter how we use it, our first concern is to keep the environment well, take good care of the river and then the benefit.

The city's population will grow daily, and everyone needs some leisure time without travelling far away or spending less/no money.

The city can create some beautiful river spots where people can sit and view the river while enjoying local foods and doing activities like exercise, skating, etc.

The city can arrange river cruse by small paddle boats or ships, by making no or less noise or hassart on the river.

Mostly, I recommend making some transit over the river, which can be helpful as entertainment and also can be used as a city transit. It will contain more people, less costs, without traffic jams and some income for the city.

Again, no matter what we do, we have to keep our flora and fauna protected.

Biography 60: New apartment in Bangladesh

 After a couple of years living in Saudi Arabia, our parents decided to come back to Bangladesh permanently. Now I think, that wasn't a wise decision. They could have a much better career and good life.

While we were in Saudi, my dad took help from his friend. Through his friend, he bought land in Dhaka to settle. We never heard of that place before, but it was near Matijhil Commercial Area.

First, we rented an apartment to live near our land. So, that our parents can look after the construction work of our new home. The apartment was in 4 storied building and we started living at level 3. My Bangladeshi life started from this home.

Our landlord was a lawyer. In that area, everyone uses to say, lawyer's house. Just beside our house, a very popular movie comedian lived. He was the brother of our landlord. Later the movie star's family became our family friends. They were such a nice family.

This house was near to a school. I am and my older sister studied in that school till grade 4. Still, I have friends connected on FB from this school.

I remember one day I broke the sink in the dining room. It was a small sink to wash hands. I was very scared. Because I put my leg on it to wash and then... you know. But the landlord smiled at me and said it's OK. The next day he put a new one.

In those days, in Dhaka city, we didn't have many high-storied buildings. So, we could view "Baitul Mokarram" from the roof of our apartment. And also the Kamalapur Railway station. Hearing the rail's noise was very common.

Around us, we had big trees. Most of them are from our neighbours. But it made the apartment look very beautiful. Now all trees are gone and there is no free space around that building. All space is captured by the high-rise apartments. It's a requirement of a Megacity. Can't deny it.

Biography 51: lake between Komolapur and Matijhil.

 In my childhood, we use to live with our paternal grandparents in their house. We were surrounded by our paternal aunts and uncle. Our grandparent's house was at Komolapur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was near the Matijhil area. I remember there was a lake between our area and the Matijhil business area. People use to go there by boat. It was a small narrowboat. People use to stand on it. The boatman uses to move with a paddle or sometimes with a bamboo very carefully. It was shallow water. Sometimes the water was cover with Water Hyacinth (In Bangla Kachuri Pana). Mostly office-going people used that boat to go to work or to come back from work. My mom said it was cost 10 cents (In Bangla Poisha).

I remember we use to go to the lake with a very narrow path between two buildings. People use to make two-row, one to go and another to return.

Later, when we returned from Saudi Arabia, I wanted to ride that boat. But I guess by that time, the lake was covered or there was no lake anymore. It was situated behind the Bangladesh Bank.

Biography 42: Nearby cities

When we were living in Umluz (Saudi Arabia) we use to visit two other nearby cities, Yanbu and Alwaz (As far as I could remember the name), apart from Mocca and Madian. In Yanbu, there was an airport. Maybe international, that's why we had to go there. Because every year our parents visited Bangladesh, while they were in Saudi Arabia. The only thing I remember about the city that I'm waiting in a big hall in the airport. There weren't many people in that airport. The cleaners (Probably Bangladeshi) were cleaning/wiping the airport. One person started wiping the floor, when he is in the middle, another person started from the starting point. So, there is no chance become dirty.

The other city Alwaz was very interesting. It was a small city. The whole city is on a hill. (As my childhood memory said). When we go to the city, my dad drives up the hill. That was scary. Then we could see an open market. This city has a very good hospital. Many Bangladeshi doctors and nurses use to work here, including my mom's friends. We had visited their homes. In this city, my youngest sister Shekha gets born.

Mega City should get ready for coming flood

Now in our area (Dhaka, Bangladesh) I can see the water level (in drain) is road level. Whenever rain comes (big or small) water comes to the road (I hope you understand these are not clean water) and doesn't move easily. It’s happening every day. I really don’t know what will happen when the flood water comes and flow across this area. You know, already the northern portion of our country facing flood.