Half-way Ramadan. First 12+ hours without food and drink in scorching heat, after sunset intensive overeating and extensive shopping.
Days go past in slow motion, exhaustion and hunger, nights are full of activity.
Strangely enough, fasting people don't seem to suffer, on the contrary. Everybody tells me that not drinking a drop of water in boiling heat is totally fine.
I have seen Ramadan before and in different countries but still the idea of on-and-off fasting for a whole month is rather incomprehensible.
The staff in our building from security to cleaners and technicians and on-lookers gather to an hour-long praying and loud chanting every night. They kneel on their brand new praying mats, probably sponsored by a well-off, very religious apartment owner.
You might have heard this: Dhakas traffic is crazy. Ramadan-Dhaka's traffic is insane - in capital letters.
Everybody wants to get home before sunset to enjoy iftar, the meal breaking the fast. The chaos also attracts large crowds of beggars and hawkers. At worst, you can make a kilometer in an hour with beggars hanging (literally) on one side of the car, hawkers on the other.
In a way, this makes sense. Ramadan is the time for generosity and good deeds. In Dhaka's streets the principle becomes a bit overwhelming.
Ramadan has also become very commercial. Big companies, organizations and government offices invite to lavish iftar parties with no limits of grease and sugar. Most restaurants offer iftar packages containing food for a week but meant for a meal.
It all ends with Eid-ul-Fitr and gifts. Bangladeshi people are generous and this time they really go scary wild - clothes, food, money, jewelry, flowers. More is not enough. Many employees get - hopefully - gifts or an extra month's salary from their employers.
The pictures here are things that are worth buying in Bangladesh. Many people think that Bangladesh is only cheap t-shirts. Not true.
The tailors here are wonderful, the fabric stores incredible. I have had made several dresses, my husband suits and pants.
The leather industry has a bad reputation - for a reason. But there are also several companies with sustainable production and an acceptable social profile.
Bangladesh is a pearl country which was an unknown fact for me - well, most things were. The pearls are collected from fresh water mussels. The pearls are beautiful in a modest way.
The most controversial things are objects from ship wrecking industry. Yes, the work conditions have been awful but due to international pressure and a certain will inside the industry, it is possible to buy some objects with a goodish conscience.
Ramadan mubarak!
