When it comes to civic sense, people living in this capital or those visiting it from all corners of the country do not have an enviable record. That no one pines for a spick-and-span city is clear from the way the city fathers and the public behave here. A cosmopolitan city demands a high degree of refinement and courtesy apart from developing practices that do not in any way infringe on other people's space -physical or mental.
People may be well-dressed but there may be a primitive creature under the sartorial smartness. Some common habits causing irritation and vexation to people all around are yet to be got rid of. One such habit is spitting anywhere and everywhere. At certain times people go on a spitting spree, it seems. Of late, a trend has caught up with the young generation like virus infection. It is the slinging of a bag from one shoulder. Quite a few middle-aged people may have got the idea that unless they also followed it, they would be considered backward. So they too have gone for bags' side-slinging.
As long as this does not awkwardly shove or strike - in case there is a compact and relatively weighty object such as a laptop - someone, there is no complaint against the manner of slinging a bag from one shoulder. But when in a bus -either standing or moving -one such passenger goes on brushing or hitting one after another seated passengers on their shoulder or side of the head, it no longer remains an innocent and personal matter. There is nothing to be surprised, if two hot heads come to blows over a dispute in the process.
Then there are the smokers. Smoking in public places is legally punishable. But not only do smokers smoke in public places, some smoke while they negotiate a crowded footpath. They exhale smoke without consideration for non-smokers walking beside them. Even the burning tip of a cigarette stick, if the smoker is careless or unmindful, at times ends up making a hole in clothes of a fellow pedestrian or even singeing the skin of a co-walker.
However the most embarrassing and unhygienic habit is the unashamed way of responding to nature's short call on roadside, against boundary walls, in street corner with or without the bare minimum obstruction to public view. At times the stinks of ammonia from some spots randomly used by the public are overwhelming. Some of these spots are too difficult to negotiate specially for girls and women as the liquid body waste spills over main roads or footpaths.
There are many other rustic and uncouth habits and practices the public of this metropolis gives into. One of the reasons is the lack of pride people take in their capital. This is unfortunate. If there is love for a city, people cannot abuse its facilities and maltreat its space like they do in Dhaka.
On top of everything, there is a feeling that here people do not even have enough love for their own life. Even if they do, the safety issue is not high on the agenda. After a number of commuters have lost their limbs and a few dying as a result, the level of awareness cannot be said to have gone up significantly. Still bus passengers are seen sticking their hands out of windows even when two buses are coming too close for comfort.
Finally, a picture carried on the front page of this newspaper on Saturday has busted the myth that the educated and grown-up people are at least aware of the risks involved when crossing the roads. Even such people do not lag behind when it comes to squeezing through the narrowest possible gap between or among vehicles as those come or are about to come to a stop. This is playing with life. But at Paltan intersection, the vehicles at times leave not much space for pedestrians to cross roads. Dug and under repair, the spot poses risk to everyone in need of crossing it.