Welcome to my Green Bangladesh: an Introduction (October 3-November 1, 2008)

Why Bangladesh?

Throughout my first month traveling India, I kept an eye out for travelers headed the same way as me--to Bangladesh. Turns out Bangladesh is not a big tourist destination. Finally, in Kolkata, I met one traveler who was going to Dhaka, but primarily to renew his Indian visa. This is why most people, it seems, make it to Bangladesh.

As for me, my situation was a bit different. My Uncle had been to Bangladesh two times, motivated by his connection with a girl he'd sponsored through Save the Children. He had connections to some nuns who ran an orphanage, an organization to which he also donated, and to some middle-class Bengalis he'd befriended. My general itinerary was to include volunteering at the orphanage, being hosted by his friend Mizan, and meeting Shilpi, his sponsor child.

Welcome to Green Bangladesh!

Throughout my email correspondence with Mizan, he kept welcoming me to his "Green Bangladesh." I passed off what he was saying as an exaggeration, imagining instead what I suspected to be the polluted, crowded, dusty streets of this impoverished country. Less than an hour after crossing the India-Bangladesh border (Petrapol-Benapole), what met my eyes were endless fields of nearly neon green, the midday sun reflecting off paddies of rice. The rice seemed plentiful, interrupted only for some small village huts, or one of Bangladesh's many fish ponds.

History

In 1947, when India became independent from the British, borders were drawn that would influence the geopolitical climate of the region for decades to come. Bengal and India were partitioned on the basis of religion at the demands of The Muslim League. Present-day Bangladesh became East Pakistan, governed thousands of miles away in Western Pakistan by people who spoke Urdu, a language more closely related to Hindi than Bangla (or Bengali).

Beyond their respective Muslim majority populaces, the two regions had little else in common. The first major conflict came when the Pakistani government tried to impose "Urdu and only Urdu" as the national language. In 1952, riots in Dhaka as part of the Bengali Language Movement erupted and 12 students were killed by the Pakistani army. Then, in 1970, a catastrophic cyclone killed around 500,000 people in East Pakistan, and the Pakistani government appeared to do little in response.

The Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had emerged as the national political party in East Pakistan, with the Language Movement as its ideological underpinning (Lonely Planet Bangladesh, 21-22). Although the party won all seats but one in the 1971 national election and should have constitutionally formed the government of all Pakistan, then-president Khan postponed the opening of the National Assembly in the face of this unacceptable result.

At the Race Course rally of 7 March 1971, Sheikh Mujib was jailed in West Pakistan, igniting rebellion in East Pakistan. Bangladesh's Freedom Fighters fought a guerrilla war against brutal tactics of the occupying Pakistani army. During the nine months from the end of March 1971, 10 million people fled to refugee camps in India. As border clashes between Pakistan and India became more frequent, Indian troops crossed the border and were victorious by 14 December. Pakistan surrendered and Sheikh Mujib took over an independent government of Bangladesh.

The Liberation War remains vivid in the memories of Bangladeshis, commemorated in songs and by memorial sculptures.

I think the most powerful explanation of the nation of Bangladesh I heard during my travels was from a humble Bangladeshi I met on a night boat ride from Dhaka to Khulna. He could barely contain himself when he met me, an American. "I am ashamed, I am so poor," he said. I tried to ignore this, only one in a series of comments I would hear from Bangladeshis evidencing the extent of their self-awareness of their poverty. In any case, this man had an acronym for Bangladesh he wanted to show me--an acronym that summarizes the country's history well. This is how he wrote it in my notebook, minus the Bangla translation:

B-blood
A-achieved
N-noteworthy
G-golden
L-lovely
A-apriciated (appreciated)
D-democratic
E-evergreen
S-soberaign (sovereign)
H-habitation

Language

People in Bangladesh speak Bangla, which is the same as Bengali, the name for the language spoken in West Bengal, India. Not only is this a source a pride for them, so are some of the country's famous poets--Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore and national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. Tagore was also the composer of many songs, called Rabindrasangit.

A few of the phrases I relied on while in Bangladesh:

asalam walekum (walekum asalam): hello (Muslim greeting)
nomashkar: hello (Hindu greeting)
donnobad: thank you
ha/ji: yes
na: no
kotai?: where
koto taka?: how much does it cost?
bondhu: friend
bhalo: good
eta: this
ami x jabo: I am going x
mas, mangsho khaina: fish, meat I am not eating
subji khai: vegetables I am eating

Food

As Bangladesh is a Muslim nation, the cuisine is heavily meat-oriented. Being a coastal state filled with ponds and rivers, much of this meat is fish. Bangladeshis eat fish almost every day.

My main dishes are bhat (rice), dhal (bean curry), pani dhal (bean curry that is more watery), dim (egg) and various subji (vegetables). I also occasionally have a tandoori naan (thick fresh bread baked in a tandoor oven). My hosts are often disappointed that I don't partake in what they feel to be the best part of the meal--the meat.

Although I didn't find the main course too appetizing, my favorite part of Bengali cuisine was its sweet desserts, its misty (sweets). My favorites were home-made shemai, vermicelli cooked in milk and sugar, and payish, rice pudding cooked with milk, sugar, cardamom and a small amount of raisins and nuts. These were a nice break from the extreme sweet of store-bought sweets, such as roshogulla, soured-milk balls boiled in syrup (similar to a donut hole that has been soaked in syrup).

And of course, there is chai, that liquid as ubiquitous on the subcontinent as the waterways that carve out the country of Bangladesh. Chai is black tea with milk and sugar, while masala chai, what Americans probably think of as chai, contains the addition of a spice mixture, usually cardamom and ginger, and sometimes other spices such as black pepper, cinnamon, anise seeds, cloves and ajwain seeds. Though the flavor is similar, the chai-making process varies regionally. In North India, chai wallahs (chai workers) boil the tea and milk together, and then add sugar and mix. They mix the tea by pouring it back and forth between two cups. This also helps to cool the tea to a drinkable temperature. In South India, chai wallas heat the milk separately, and then pour it through a tea-containing cloth filter into a cup and add sugar if it is not already in the milk. In Bangladesh, it seems all the chai wallahs use sweetened condensed milk and add this to a cup of tea. And, for the record, when I was staying with a friend in Karachi, Pakistan in 2006, his family used powdered milk. Here is a picture of a chai wallah in his Dhaka shop:

The other thing I will remember about Bangladeshi food is eating with my hands. Learning by watching Mizan mix subji and rice to just the right consistency so that the rice could be picked up and shoved into the mouth with a thumb. "There is more love this way because your hand is connected to your heart," his wife Shobnam explained. I watched many evenings as Mizan fed his wife from his hand, and she him from her hand, from one plate. Mizan arguing that Shobnam was not eating enough. This is also how mothers feed their children--from their hand--they said. This is Bangladeshi love, they said.


People/Culture

As a tourist destination, Bangladesh lacks the historical sights that India offers. It is a country that is not easy to navigate because almost every destination requires both a bus and a boat to reach. I think it is Bangladeshis themselves that make this country worth visiting.

Not used to seeing foreigners (I only saw about 8 Westerners in my 1-month stay), Bangladeshis are excited to meet anyone from outside. This excitement then turns into staring, or questions such as, "What country?" and then sometimes crowds of 10 or more people form. This made for some good photo opportunities, but ultimately got very tiring.



One time, I wanted to use the Internet after I hadn't done so in about a week. On the way, a young Bangladeshi boy asked if he could sit with me. I didn't think he'd stay for the entire hour, but he did, asking me questions about my family, and wondering why I didn't like Bangladeshi food (which I had written in an email). I really wanted to express myself to people back home, but this curious Bangladeshi stood in the way. After the Internet session, I wanted to buy a gift for my host, and the same boy who sat with me at the Internet took me to a grocery store and helped me pick out fruit.

Aside from their keen interest in me as a foreigner, I observed that Bangladeshis are more eager to talk politics than most of the Indians I met. When I told people I was from America (pronounced "Am-rik-a," with a slightly rolled "r"), they often responded with some negative banter about Bush, and some positive feedback about Obama. "100-percent of Bangladeshis support Obama," I was told by one hotel manager. It would have been interesting to be in Bangladesh during the election, but I was en route from Kolkata to New Jaipalguri at that time.

Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world and also one of the most densely populated. Unemployment among educated persons is at around 80%, according to Mizan. Traveling here gave me new perspective on the problems associated with global "development." I have never met a people so self-aware of their own poverty. "I am ashamed to meet you," one excited Bangladeshi man said when I told him I am American, "I am so poor." Other Bangladeshis were similarly apologetic for their inability to offer me anything because of their poverty, or introduced themselves saying, "we are so poor." Though this self-awareness is accurate, I think it is gained in part by the strong presence of foreign NGOs and the UN working in Bangladesh and, as such, it is debilitating. Bangladeshis are innovative and resilient but believe they need so much foreign aid as the solution to their problems. I experienced that such aid makes beggars of entire nations, caught in a vicious cycle of dependence. In some cases, I was told, the aid organizations actually create more harm because their lending system puts Bangladeshis into greater debt. There are some organizations doing a great deal of good, but removed from the daily operations of such organizations and the changing situation of the country, I feel impotent to support them. I feel I should offer a solution, but I don't have one right now.

Despite the poverty, Bangladeshis in general are a very happy people. Perhaps, I was told, the happiest people in the world (according to some survey that was conducted)! They love to sing and, Mizan tells me, 70% of Bangladeshis are natural-born singers. I was asked to sing on many occasions, including one embarrassing situation in which I had to sing in front of a crowd of about 20 school teachers.

Bangladesh is a country of villages: almost everyone is connected to their family village (the village of their parents or grandparents), even if they have moved to Dhaka for work. Families are very tight, which is both good and bad. Although this creates a strong sense of stability and security, it is also accompanied by a sense of responsibility to fulfill certain duties, such as marriage and providing financial support to one's parents. This, in turn, causes tension, which Bangladeshis do their utmost to avoid.


Religion

Bangladesh is about 90% Muslim, 9% Hindu, and the rest of its people are either Buddhist, Christian (mostly Roman Catholic), or animist. I had the opportunity to interact with most of these communities, as Mizan's family is Muslim, I stayed with some Catholic sisters, and met my uncle's sponsor daughter, who comes from a Hindu family. Still, Islam permeates the country, from its food choices to the call to prayer I heard reverberating off tightly-packed rooftops, echoing from mosque to mosque in the dense city of Dhaka.