search for identity

we went to bangladesh seeking to visit our ancestral village in bhATdi, where our fathers' grandfather pArvaticharaN re-settled (from the next-door village of hAsAndiYA) after he had been granted land in the turmoil of the permanent settlement. ajaydA, myself, and ajitesh, all the great grandsons of pArvaticharaN, were part of this voyage of discovery; ajaydA's wife ramA-boudi was also with us.

ajay dA had been born in bhATdi, but he left at age 6 in the 1950s. for ajitesh and me, bhATdi was a mere name. we knew people who knew a family who still lived there, but we'd not been able to establish contact with them. indeed, we weren't too sure we'd be able to find it even.

we went to bAnglAdesh seeking to re-affirm our identity, balancing our modern urban selves with our ancestral village roots. however, we found an entire nation roiled in a precarious balance on the fulcrum of a divided identity.

on the one hand bangladesh is a nation of bengalis, a nation that had defied the imposition of urdu by pakistan and waded through a river of blood to gain independence. yet, it is also a strongly islamic nation, and a significant part of it had sided with the pakistani forces, and carried out a genocide on the less religious "others". indeed, an important part of the erstwhile khaleda zia government, currently the opposition coalition, is the jamaat-e-islami, a group led by religious leaders who were part of the killings of 1971, some of whom still espouse a reunion with Pakistan (e.g. see this news report: 1971 remnants still active in politics).

divisive politics

as a result of this divide, any visitor to bangladesh cannot escape its intensively divisive politics. there was a hartal on the day we entered (20th). there was another two days earlier. during a hartal a week back, a youth called bishwajit dAs was brutally hacked to death on live tv. there was a large 18-party opposition rally the day we left. the entire country seemed to be covered with posters such as those seeking trials of the war criminals, (directed at the BNP opposition). indeed, given the fervour of the mutijuddha and the ekushe february, i found it astonishing that a large group of people who had supported pakistan in the liberation war had not been brought to trial or re-aligned.

on the other side are the slogans against widespread corruption that target the liberal awami league government of sheikh hasina, which is tottering under huge scams. one of the most prominent is the padma bridge corruption fiasco, in which the World Bank cancelled a billion dollar credit line for the much needed road connection west from Dhaka. however, the one leader viewed by the public as being among the most corrupt in all bangladesh is tarique zia, the son of opposition leader khaleda, currently living in london for health reasons. his brother is serving a six year prison sentence for bribes. the man on the street is disgusted with politics, but as in india, finds little choice. nonetheless, it seemed unlikely to us visitors that the awami league coalition would survive elections next year.

our plan was ambitious: visit DhAkA for 2 days, chittagong and cox'x bAzAr (2 days, and faridpur / bhAtdi (2 days). fortunately we managed to get overnight trains both ways between DhAkA and chittagong, otherwise it might have been an endless bus journey...

getting there

the trip to bangladesh was in the air since last winter. ajitesh had been there earlier, but he had not been south or in bhATdi. our original plan was to take the train (Maitree express) which runs twice a week, on the 18th. ajitesh and ajayda submitted their visa applications at kolkata on 13 december, but my visa form, which i had downloaded from the delhi high commission webpage, was rejected. in any case, their visas would be issued only on the 19th.

after some struggle, we managed to get all the visas issued on the 17th, but since we were not mentally prepared, we eventually went by the Shyamoli Paribahan bus on the 20th. we booked the tickets (rs.950) from the Shyamoli offices near Jamuna on Marquis St (they required us to show the passports with visa stamps). we were lucky to get the four front row seats, which had been cancelled that very day, it seems.

on dec 20th, we boarded the bus at 0700 at karunamoyee in salt lake.

the border formalities took about two hours - one hour each at the India and Bangladesh ends. due to the hartAl, the normal lunch halt at magura was not possible, and we had a grossly overpriced lunch stop at kAnAipur. it was dusk by the time our bus went onto the padma ferry (daulatdia to paturia). this ferry earlier used to be at goalanda-ghAT, but the rivers have shifted and goAlanda is now 5 km inland.

while crossing the river on the ferry shah jAlAl, ajitesh and i went up to the bridge and talked to the captain mr. batrul alam. there are 13 large ferries, all of danish make, all dating to 1985 or so. each boat has two captains who run the boat continuously, taking turns in six hour shifts. by 6 pm, visibility was getting low, and mr. alam told us that they may soon be halting services due to fog. this meant that by the time it would resume service in the morning, thousands of trucks and buses would accumulate in a huge backlog on both shores.

later, we saw in the news that the ferries had actually kept running till midnight, when our ferry, shAh jAlAl, along with two others, actually got stuck in the middle of the padma river due to intense fog. each was carrying a hundred vehicles and 400 passengers - everyone had to spend nine hours in the middle of the river.

the ferries also face difficulties even in the monsoons when the river is like an ocean. even in the best of times, a truck may have to wait for nearly six hours and a bus for upto an hour to board a ferry. the crossing itself takes about half an hour.

meanwhile the ambitious padma bridge project has been shelved due to corruption. after canada arrested two functionaries of the firm SNC-Lavalin for paying bribes, the world bank presented evidence to the government that minister of communications syed abul hossein had been paid a Tk 15 crore bribe (40% of the total kickback). despite the WBank pressure, the government did not name Hossein as part of the group being investigated, and eventually World Bank withdrew its line of credit:

In light of the inadequate response by the Government of Bangladesh, the World Bank has decided to cancel its $1.2 billion IDA credit in support of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project, effective immediately.     - World Bank statement on Padma Bridge, Jan 2012.

terrific hospitality

despite all the difficulties of everyday life in bAnglAdesh, i found it among the most warm and friendly nations i'd visited. there was a palpable sense of goodwill towards india. people we'd meet on the street would invite us and press us to visit their homes, and go out of their way to make sure we were comfortable. some of the people who were particularly helpful:

shAh-Alam works as a tailor. he gave up a holiday to accompany us all over old DhAkA. even afterwards, he called us several times to see how we were faring.

biswarup dhar is a policeman. he went out of his way to help us find a hotel, and visited us again later. he also invited us home for dinner, but we couldn't go for this.

mr. bahar is an affluent businessman whom we met at DhAkA station. he invited us for tea to his elegant home in chittagong.

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* day 2-3: DhAkA
* day 4-5: chittagong / cox's bazar
* day 6: faridpur / bhATdi

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