Enjoy your festivals, don't torture others

 Asian people like to enjoy their festivals. Like new year, 1st day of spring, etc. They just don't enjoy, the way they enjoy that everybody can see, hear the bit of music.

Canadian culture is a little different. They like to enjoy their festivals too. But they never make other people see or hear, who doesn't want to.

When I first came to Canada, I was surprised to see that they were having a big election but I couldn't feel it. No big banners, no car rally, no frequently knocking on doors on elections. They knew where to go to vote, they went and got the result. I got to know about it from the news that all of a sudden we have got a new prime minister.

A few days ago a Persian family was celebrating their new year with their friends and families. Their culture is to play very loud music and dance and sing. The security tried to make them understand their neighbour can't sleep in this situation. They couldn't understand. They keep saying, try to understand, it's our new year.

But we should know, we all respect each other's culture, and we can enjoy ourselves as much as we want, but we can't disturb our neighbour. You never know who is facing which situation in life, some may take drugs to sleep, some may have very early flights to catch, some may not like your music, etc.

Don't torture others with your festival or occasions. Let's make a better environment where everyone can live the way they want to.

Biography 70: New friends came

 We have started living in Bangladesh permanently when I became 8 years old. We had rented an apartment in a new place. One day some kids from our neighbourhood came to our house. My mom opened the door. They talked, then my mom called us (I and my older sister) and said, these kids are from our neighbour, they came here to pick you up to play with them. Every afternoon they came for a couple of days.

Now I can say, I lived in many places. But never neighbourhood kids came to help us to join them. It was a great gesture from the kids and their parents, which I never had after that, nowhere in this world.

They took us downstairs. There was an open space near our boundary wall. Now a new apartment builds there, so no space for future kids. On that day, didn't take us over there as we were very new and don't know the roads. They just stay on the main floor of our apartment. Then they asked us, what can we play. I was very new in Bangladesh. I didn't know the game names they were suggesting. Finally, I found one known game, "Kumir Kumir (Crocodile crocodile)". It means all kids will stay in a little higher place. The plain land will be the area of a crocodile. If anyone gets down and a crocodile touches them, that person will become the next crocodile and everyone else will stay in high land. When anyone came down to the crocodile area, they usually say, "Crocodile, I'm here in your water".

We played for a couple of days that game until everyone get bore.

Biography 32: Baakhit

 In Alkaseem (Saudi Arabia) we lived in an extension of a clinic. It was at the end of the clinic. After our rooms, there was a high clay-made wall. We knew that was the house of a doctor from the clinic. His name was Baakhit. He came from Sudan or any other country, he was black. According to his culture, kids uses to call him by his name. His colleagues asked him to teach his kids to call him DAD/Abu (In Arabic). He had a couple of kids. Whenever anything needed at home his kids use to sit on the wall/roof and called him. We could see them and hear them clearly from our room.

The kids first started calling him by saying "Abu!". He didn't answer, maybe he wanted all to listen that his kids aren't calling him by his name. After a couple of times calling "Abu," they directly call, "Baakhit!". Whenever they called "Baakhit" he always replied immediately. He didn't want anyone to listen to this. :)

When we went to visit his house, we saw a clay-made two storied house. There were a couple of kids in the house. Some of them are teenagers, the rest were kids. In the front open area (In Bangla, uthan) there is a bed (In Bangla, choki). His wife was sitting on it. She welcomes us with a big smile. They were very nice and caring to us. She asked her older kids to bring food for us. Her children took very good care of the guests. When we left she said goodbye from that bed. She was overweighted. Someone told me, no one saw her walking or standing. She was always staying in bed.

The way I heard, I felt she is lazy, as she doesn't move, she became overweight. But now I'm thinking, maybe she has some medical condition, that's why she was in bed always.