I was laughing hard - in my mind though! The guy sitting next to me on the bus kept on using wrong words along with grammatically misaligned sentences! In his early fifties with receding hairline, he reminded me of one of my colleagues. He worked in an office - I could tell by looking at his clothing.
A while later he got up - the bus reached his destination.
I noticed his shoes were torn in two different places. He stitched one crack up, but the other one was a gape! Either he didn't bother about that or simply couldn't afford to get that fixed. The 30-40 taka (about 50 cents) that would have cost him to get the shoes repaired would be valuable somewhere else; he could use that money for two days' bus fare, or to buy a little food for his family.
Surprising, isn't it? In Bangladesh, this is a harsh reality.
I was not laughing anymore! I can handle or accept inequality - to an extent. I can even justify it by labeling it as a naturally occurring phenomenon provided it is within normalcy! But I cannot accept it, nor can I bear it if it is of ridiculous stature! It is alright with me if someone has a nicer car while everyone else has a decent car to serve their needs. I have no issues with someone buying the finest clothing or shoes, while everyone else has decent ones to wear! I even do not care if someone has a palace, if everyone else has a decent roof over their heads! But I cannot accept someone buying a house worth millions of dollars (I have serious doubts about the legitimacy of the source of the money) while many sleeps in the streets!
On one end, some people are spending in a day for luxury what many earns in a year. On the other end of the tunnel is just darkness and abysmal despair hammered in by poverty! We have to merge the two sides - let the light illuminate the dark!
No! I am not a a communist. But inequality is a human issue - not a political one to divide ourselves on! It is an issue for everyone to work together to solve!
