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Eid holidaymaking: Why things turn messy

17 May 2021 19:41:26 | Update: 18 May 2021 10:34:11
Eid holidaymaking: Why things turn messy
In this file photo, hundreds of Eid holidaymakers are seen crammed on a ferry crossing the Padma river.

Nazmul Ahsan

Because you don't have an in-depth study before formulating any directives for fixing problems or keeping any untoward situation at bay, you just keep on beating about the bush.

Like many, a lot of things considered to take a “messy” turn in absence of any well-thought-out plan by the authorities concerned, an ever perennial mess is the situation that unfolds prior to and following the Eid when it comes to returning home and back to the capital.

It would just be less fruitful to fathom the cause of discontent of the masses, woes of the helpless and the savage occurrences, which people bear the brunt of, unless and until laws come into being after a much deliberate consideration.

And problems will keep up and there will be no off-limit to them.

Is it not worthwhile to sense the pulse of the commoners, be it during the festival, holidaymaking and/or observing any tradition?

Is this so, that your everyday life is akin to the festival, full of merriments, with near and dear ones, which keeps you from thinking outside the box, and let all other things fall apart?

Things end up getting untidy while it is time for the authorities to rethink and redouble their efforts, but “who cares” seems to be the order of the day – a very practice that needs to be altered.

Just take notice of the situation when home-goers set out for their villages to celebrate the holy festival being sandwiched in whatever vehicles they could manage to get into.

It is really very customary that people would go home during the Eid and share their joy at home and, therefore, won’t listen to the rhetoric – stay home – to avoid Covid infection. The connect we all feel with each other during Eid festival is beyond description.

Was it possible to prevent them from embarking on the apparently perilous journey towards their ancestral places? Certainly not, but the government banned inter-district buses, restricted launch services and obstructed ferry movement to compel people to celebrate Eid in metropolitan cities.

This is, therefore, an utter failure of the policymakers, who could devise a much smarter plan to deal with the situation. Rather than shutting the long-routed bus service, an operation of such service could have been instrumental in easing public woes, plus keeping infection a far.

Actually, ours are the people largely “immune” from deadly Covid. A study on the people living in the slums holds water in this assumption.

How many of those dwelling in the capital slums are infected with the virus, and died? How many apparel workers, rickshaw pullers, transport drivers, day labourers and salesmen at kitchen markets died, or infected with Covid? They live in crammed houses, work in packed factory floors and go to workplaces in dozens and hundreds. They are not infected, nor being succumbed to the deadly pathogen but are struggling to survive for want of means for sustenance under the corona emergency.

This is the reality with no substantial scientific reasons being in place to justify the immunity. But medics believe hardworking people have a strong immune system where the virus fails to get its upper hand. They often get vitamin D in abundance as they have to work under the sunshine and walk to workplaces defying the scorching heat overhead. These hapless are lucky in the sense that the virus has not claimed their lives. But the virus made them poorer and stunted them while the ill-conceived government efforts to stem the Covid cost them three to four times the normal fare to get their village homes during the Eid holiday. They had to wait a lot for transport, ferries and jostled for getting into vehicles while five frantic home-goers died in the stampede.

Thanks to the generous regulations that helped the affluent and private vehicle owners move from cities to villages easily, board planes and travel wherever they sought to.

It is our culture to celebrate festivals, find solace to find our mothers smiling upon our arrivals during Eid holidays. Any sort of obstruction cannot halt us. People are happy that they at least got their village homes at the cost of money and torrid time, defying instructions to staying home.

They express their gratitude to almighty Allah. On the contrary, they vent their anger at the so-called government regulations to confine them in cruel cities. Sometimes, particularly during Eid vacations, the marginal and the ordinary people become braver and smarter, saying a big ‘No’ and getting ready to brave all odds.

Policymakers need to understand the inner strength of our people, the culture of our society and of course, their strength.

 

Nazmul Ahsan is the Executive Editor of The Business Post

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