Mad Dogs, Englishmen and Yours Truly
(May 1) It must have been the hottest day of the year today. I needed to go to Nilkhet (from the Baridhara area). Since it was a holiday, I expected roads to be clear and decided to bicycle, starting out at 11am.
Unfortunately I chose the "ugly way" to get there - by way of Tejgaon Industrial Area. It was so hot that the ice cold water in my water bottle turned lukewarm in ten minutes. Heck, it was so hot that the green arrow of the traffic signal started looking like a lime popsicle to my bleary eyes.
Anyways, I got there safely and got my work done. BTW, Nilkhet is an adventure in itself. This place, home of 3 or 4 used bookstores thirty years ago (I bought one volume of Britannica here in 1974) is now a sprawling book empire of hundreds of small shops. They do everything - sell used books, copy books, bind books, make covers, cut paper, glue stuff together, sell stationery - to do with books.
On the way back, I decided to take the scenic route - turning right after going a ways past Asad Gate, along Zia Udyan, behind Parliament.
I stopped twice to refill my drinking water. The worst moments were when I was stuck in traffic exposed to direct sunlight (and in Industrial area, behind a belching bus.) I was ok when moving, because of the breeze I felt during bicycling. Here are some pictures.
Krishnachuras at full bloom.
The lake looked refreshing.
A brilliant move by the boy: cool down in the water!
Modern-day Visti-wallah (water-seller - remember the Humayun story?)
Water and Electricity
The weather heated up the last few days, as expected for April. All the air conditioners in the city turned on at the same time. So... load-shedding, a fancy term for "It's your turn to do without electricity for a couple of hours." (Reminds me of a story by Sanjib Chattopadhyay where he goes to the doctor for with a back pain and is told it is spondalitis. He is impressed by the name, then remarks, when it comes to afflictions, the more impressive sounding the name, the more painful it is.) Then some power station caught fire, so... more load shedding. The power station fire apparently prevented the Water Supply from pumping water, so... two days without running water. Feels a little like that backpacking trip I took in the Sierra Nevada going four days without a shower :-). It's going to be a long hot summer.
Deikhya Chalan Na! (Can't You Look Where You're Going!)
Last week I was bicycling to a friend's house in Gulshan. I was riding my racing bike: lightweight but hard to control. Enjoying the unexpected cool in Choitro, I was gently ambling down Road 96. As I approached a T intersection, where a road from the left met 96, I saw two rickshaws coming down 96 from the opposite direction. They gave no indication of turning; I took a quick look left to make sure no one was coming from there. All clear, so I entered the intersection. At the last possible instant the front rickshaw decided to turn right into this road and almost hit me.
I swerved to the left, fought for control of the bike and came to a sharp stop at a gently sloping roadside ditch. Luckily, I jumped off without taking a fall.
I was furious. The rickshaw had made its turn and was moving away, about 20 feet from me. "Deikhya chalan na!" I yelled after him, meaning "Can't you look where you are going?"
That's when the rickshaw-wallah turned his head towards me. I was waiting for this moment, so I could pin him with my angry glare. Instead, I got the second shock of the day. The man had only one eye.
The Garrulous Taxi Driver
I had to take a CNG across town the other day. Turned out the driver was talkative with a lot of opinions. (A CNG is a small three-wheeled taxi, running on Compressed Natural Gas, popular in Dhaka.)
Of Bangladeshis he said, "We are the most luxury-loving people in the world." Why, I asked. "Because for only 12 Taka you can get a half-hour ride on a super-luxurious Volvo bus from Mirpur to Farm Gate. A bus that costs 1.5 Crore (about $210,000)! People seem to love it, too" he complained.
His other complaint was about the rich people. There are many families who have 4 or 5 cars now. Not only that, they change models every couple of months. "What do they need so many cars for? No wonder the roads are all clogged up."
We got on the rich people track after he complained how hard it was to make money. "We have to pay Tk 600 every day as rental for this CNG. We have to sweat so much just to earn Tk 200 daily income." He said he was hoping that the rental would drop to 500 soon.
We passed by a strip mall in Gulshan-1 where, among a row of about 10 almost identical storefronts, one had been demolished (because of unpermitted construction.) "Don't you think it is unfair to pick out only one while the others are intact?" I asked. "Not at all, that is a warning sign to the others. If they don't fix their storefronts, they will go, too," he said sternly.
He was optimistic about the country's economy, as I found out in a roundabout way, when he said that the Rangs Building was coming down for sure (this is a controversial Dhaka landmark, reputed to have been built unpermitted.) "But think about it," I said, "there are at least 1000 people who work in that building. Each one supports at least 4 or 5 others. That's a lot of people who will be out of a job." "No problem," he said, "they can get other jobs. They have to just look - there are plenty of jobs."
While he was talking he forgot to tell me that he was almost out of CNG. So we made an unplanned stop in Tejgaon Industrial Area for 15 minutes while he waited in the CNG fillup line, while I took a quick stroll in the underbelly of industrial Dhaka.
Back on the road, he ranted about the CNG business. "These CNGs should have cost only 1-1.5 lac Taka ($1500-2000) but because of the corruption and everyone taking their cuts, the owner had to pay 3-4 lac. That's why poor people like me have to pay Tk 600 a day for renting it," he complained.
Well at least he is not burning petrol. The bill for filling up with CNG (to last him 1.5 days of schlepping people around town) came to Tk 45, about seventy cents.
We reached our destination. The meter read Tk 80 ($1.10) for about 8 miles. I paid him an extra Tk 10 bakhseesh, and with freshly filled CNG tanks our garrulous driver went off to find his next passenger (and captive audience.)
Bicycling Tour of Old Dhaka
I took seven bicycling friends (all expats) on a "guided" tour of old Dhaka today. We picked Friday to avoid traffic congestion.
The plan was to bicycle from Gulshan 2 to see old Dhaka sights. These are ordered to start in the southeast and end at the northwest.
1. Shakhari Bazar (aka Shakhari Patti)
2. Ruplal House
3. Pink Palace
4. Armenian Church
5. Bara Katara
6. Lalbagh Fort
7. (if time permits) Khan Mohammed Mridha's mosque
At the end of the tour our cars met us in front of Lalbagh Fort.
We started from Gulshan 2 at 7:15am and bicycled through Tejgaon industrial area, Maghbazar, Kakrail and turned into Najrul Islam road, made a left into Bangabandhu Avenue and then on to Nawabpur Road. Straightforward, but there were still a few busses on the road, specially near Maghbazar.
From Nawabpur Road we turned right into the road leading to Shakhari Patti, then walked our biycles. We looked through some open doors to see the narrow and deep houses of Shakhari Patti. Two monkeys entertained us perched on second floor verandas and windows. The triple-arch facade of an old house also attracted my friends' interest. But despite many requests I could not get anyone at Shakhari Patti to let us into a house and see the inside. Too early in the morning?
We bicycled out of SP and went around Bahadur Shah Park (after a quick briefing on 1857 Sepoy Revolution) by North Brook Road towards Farashganj. As we entered the spice trading area, we ran into a jam caused by trucks delivering wholesale spices and had to walk our bicycles. We found Ruplal House and admired its exterior.
RH is inhabited by families of Armed Forces, and at first they refused us permission to go inside. I tried to reason with the guards (the interior courtyard is very nice and gives one a sense of times past) to no avail. As we were turning around disappointed, they changed their mind and said ok, but strictly no photography.
After checking out RH, we crossed into the road that runs in front of the river (Lalkuthi Road) and bicycled towards Ahsan Manzil. Here I made a mistake. I kept going straight to show a nice view of Ahsan Manzil from Sadarghat Road. Should have turned right and taken Patuatuli Road instead, because the front of AM was a horrid, claustrophobic jam that lasted for several hundred feet. Trucks delivering wholesale fruits had blocked the road and zillions of people and Van Garis carrying smaller loads were also trying to move. It took us 15 minutes to cross this part, but my friends took this little adventure in good humor.
Then we went under the Buriganga bridge ramp and back into Islampur Road. Shortly we turned right towards the Armenian Church dating from 1781. The caretaker let us in and opened it up for us. It was a surprising island of tranquility - with memorials, one statue, and lots of green. We also went to the roof and enjoyed the scenery.
Onwards on Islampur Road, we headed towards Chawk Bazar where we turned left into a narrow alley to see Bara Katara, Dhaka's oldest building (1644), now the home of a Madrasah. After we viewed the exterior dome, a teacher graciously showed us inside and took us to the roof for some nice views. Inside the Katara, some rooms and passages looked really old - could be original.
After this we bicycled to Lalbagh Fort. Since we had time, we biked another half km and saw Khan Mohammed Mosque. This pretty mosque is build on a platform. The basement served - and still does - as a dormitory.
Back we came to Lalbagh Fort. My friends did not mind the differential in admission between Bangladeshi admission (Tk. 5) and foreigner admission (Tk. 50) - they were happy to pay it and hoped the money be used for upkeep. The grounds of the Fort were well-kept and beautiful. I overheard a boss type barking instructions to a gardener on how to prune and beautify the garden. We spent time around Pari Bibi's (Shaista Khan's daughter) Mausoleum. Then we headed to the Hammam Khana (no, not for a shower!) and the museum.
We finished at noon. My friends all enjoyed the trip. One commented that even though he had visited some of the same places before by car, the bicycle trip afforded him a level of immediacy not available in a car.
I am planning Part 2 of this trip. Let's see... Tara masjid, Goal Talab, Hossaini Dalan, Nurjahan House, what else???
Bank Experience
Some days ago, I had to go to a (govt) bank for some business. This is not my "normal" bank, but my Father maintains his account there. So I go there, say, once every 2-3 months. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt, casual pants and sneakers. I had to open the door myself despite the sentry sitting inside - he could not be bothered. The bank officials did their work for me, but only after my pushing and prodding. They were not exactly cooperative or helpful. And as I was leaving I barely restrained myself from yelling at the sentry because he would not get up and open the door for me.
So I was annoyed and weighed whether to go back and yell at all of them. After all, my Father has banked with them for 20+ years.
Instead, another opportunity presented itself. I had to return in a couple of days for another errand. But instead of preparing for a fight, I tried an experiment. I put on a nice shirt, creased pants, a blazer, and a pair of black leather shoes. And wore a serious scowl on my face.
Voila! At my approach, the sentry stood up, opened the door and saluted me smartly. The bank officials were all very cooperative and I got the errand done in record time!
Lesson: if you are going to a (govt) bank in Bd, dress better than anyone working in there and act mean!
Boroi Season
Boroi season is in full swing here in Dhaka. Kids are having a blast, with the vendors posted strategically outside school gates. I have tried at least four varieties, though I am sure there are many more. Prices are high. If you buy from the posh side of town, you can pay a ridiculous Tk 100/kg for the premium Oval and Aapel Borois. In other places, the minimum is still a high Tk 60/kg.
That said, the Borois I tried were absolutely delicious. The Aapel (Apple) Boroi was the sweetest, but the oval one was the best overall because of its extra crunchy texture. And the round deshi boroi had great flavor with just a little tartness.
Here are some pictures.
Aapel Borois
Oval Borois
Deshi Borois
Incidentally, I tried a Boroi off of a tree in Ayutthaya, Thailand, recently and it tasted just like our Deshi Borois.
The Burnt Bus
Yesterday morning, I overheard a bus conductor arguing about "trouble" near Wireless Gate in Mohakhali. Walking there, I found the remains of this burnt bus.
Stepping into it I was filled with sadness. I imagined all the passengers these seats had carried to and from work, or school, or friends and relatives' houses - even secret rendezvous. Some had gotten seats to sit, others had travelled standing, yet others maybe dangling from the door (don't see much of that these days.) How many Aamra and other Snack-wallahs had sold food inside here? And what about those small quarrels that passengers have with the conductors? Maybe a father had treated his son to Shishu Park on a Friday, sitting on that last row on the left? Maybe a beggar had sneaked past the conductor and sang sad songs to earn something? Had any pickpocket operated in this bus?
Well, there you have it. One less bus to take people where they need to go.
courtesy by...
SAGAR RESTUARANT
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Sagar Restaurant offers an extensive choice We provide 100% halal meat.of traditional Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian cuisine together with new mouthwatering recipes, but if you have a preferred dish that isn't on the menu, please don't hesitate to ask the management who will be more than happy to have our chef specially prepare it for you. |
Jamaica, New York 11432
PHONE: 718-298-5696
718-657-2855
718-213-4338(for catering only)
Web Site: www.sagarfood.com
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