Dressed For The Public

At the other end of Bangladesh it would take one second to realize the extent to how radically you would dress. But this is surely the maximum.It depends on the person who wears the dress. So why at the same place huge discrepancy between men and women clothing? People dressed as they would please; and somewhere just as much your religion would allow. Weather hardly matters here.This limitation to present oneself is not required in a place where both are allowed equal cooperation.

Old Dhaka Shakrain Kite Festival

Shakrain is a traditional festival held each year by the old Dhaka community; an ethnic festival where people from all over Dhaka join together in a day long activities – flying kites, blowing fireworks and energetic dance sessions.

In Between Savar and Inani

“The first and continuing argument for the curtailment of working hours and the raising of the minimum age was that education was necessary in a democracy and working children could not attend school.” — Grace Abbott

At the National Martyr Memorial of Bangladesh, I saw this kid selling flowers out in the rain –

Elsewhere, at Cox’s Bazaar, some children run out and play after school –

We’re never going to have respectful and reverential relationships with the planet- and sensible policies about what we put in the air, the soil, the water – if very young children don’t begin learning about these things literally in their houses, backyards, streets and schools. We need to have human beings who are oriented that way from their earliest memories.” — Elise Boulding

Further Reading :
Do One Thing

Bhairab : Vantage Point of Bangladesh Economy

Bhairab can be a good escape from the busy life of Dhaka. Catch the train and go through the green barren lands in a two hour journey.

To put the place in the frame of imagination, you can could have a gigantic bridge connecting the two biggest divisions of Bangladesh, the great river Meghna by which life and soul at Bhairab revolves, and the Ashuganj fertilizer factory. The trio could symbolize the serenity, national communication and industrialization of a small economy.

Dyed lambs! According to my friend these are owned by a local who has significant political influence. The lambs roam around the whole town. They are everywhere!

As you walk through streets of Bhairab the strong river breeze is replaced with pungent smell of every raw product imaginable. The serenity of the river is absent and people are rushing everywhere on another work day. The architecture of a large portion of all the buildings has a flavor of the British colonial rule, the new ones assure that those times are past.

One of the many old structures still standing by the streets of Bhairab. This particular one is a music school still active.

There are a lot of people who work as laborers in different warehouse businesses. There are many family owned warehouse businesses that dominates the local trade. It’s a somewhat richer sub community in an overall low income community and there is mutual consent between these families. You have to use a payslips for regular shoppings, but not all can use it. A group of closely related families owning business there have a way to maintain all the shoppings without regular money transaction. The market seem to have a harmony as similar business functions together in an area, for example the fish warehouses, vegetable warehouses and wood warehouses are located in separate roads within the marketplace. Nonetheless, Bhairab remains an everyday story of grassroot people, as a single entity shaping the economy of Bangladesh and owing to its huge importance, needs proper attention from the government to make rapid technological progress. It can be seenas one of the vantage points to affect a promising economy, along with other similar areas of Bangladesh. It can also be an ideal case study for researchers. Bangladesh has lost 18000 km of river routes in the past four decades. The rivers must be saved to keep the agriculture centered economy alive.

Outside the small town are acres of land that has immense scope for agricultural use. A notable spot is the war memorial, a mass grave of martyred freedom fighters of The War of Liberation. The area adjacent to neighbour upzilla Ashuganj is known for serving as the 11th sector during the war in 1971.

Century old statue of Hindu goddess Kali.

Towards the river, however, remains the main attraction – the nucleus of Bhairab, the force that keeps transcending lives in nature’s own mysterious way. In the dark hours sometimes, if you listen closely, you can hear folk songs that echoes from the other side of Meghna.

Rickshaw

Working Class Heroes

Mongol Shovajatra

Mongol Shovajatra is a traditional event – a procession mainly, held on the morning of Bangla New Year. The rally known for its vivid, exotic art installations, is primarily organized by students of Charukola – The Art Institute of the University of Dhaka.

Pahela Baishakh, or the Bangla New Year is held on 14th April each year. The creative force behind this important traditional event starts preparing for the procession days ahead. Important, because in brief it symbolizes secularism of our culture, secularism which is a major factor to our nation’s unity. In a state long suffered from ensuring the rights of minority because of the onslaught of religious fundamentalism, this powerful event which promotes secularism called Mongol Shovajatra attended by thousands somehow reestablishes the fact that there is still an event where any people can walk – a point where all Bangladeshis are one. You don’t necessarily have to be a Muslim or a Hindu or a Christian. Subsequently and quite naturally, the event is criticized or otherwise plainly neglected by people who leans to the right side of our political spectrum, having a mixed cultural view in terms of both Religion and Nationality.

It was my first time at Mongol Shovajatra and it was amazing, it always is. The colorful masks, festoons take you the days of the kings and queens, the hard working farmers from a thousand years, the things that we used everyday but have been replaced now with things that is not quite our own. The procession is supported by the massive fair of Pahela Baishakh around the Dhaka University campus area, which brings back elements of our Bangla culture we seemingly thought to have forgotten to care amid borrowed elements from neighbors and as the result of having past invaders to Bangla.

Mother, Guiding Child’s Footsteps

This is from Himchori, Cox’s Bazar, where I was reluctantly standing away from the not so tempting waterfall the place is known for. I saw this mother sitting close to me wearing a same reluctant mood, wearing my country’s colors, with her kid’s shoes. Her kid is overjoyed and she’s gracefully keeping his shoes.

And then, they left.

Gutter Flower

With Sunlight and Shadows

From the latest Cox’s Bazar tour. On my way back to the hotel room on this lazy sunny afternoon.