Sadness and resilience

Exactly a year ago a group of religious extremist gunmen attacked Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka. 

Inside the popular cafe, they held clients as hostages, and brutally killed 22 people with guns and machetes. The heinous terror deed was primarily an attack against foreigners and Western values.

Ironically, many of the victims were in Bangladesh in order to help and support the nation. 

Unfortunately, the world has seen many and worse terror attacks since Holey. Therefore, it is more important than ever to fight the bad, cherish the good and live on. 

Today was a day of commemoration in Dhaka. People gathered outside Holey and paid their respect to the victims and their families.

It was sad but also encouraging. Holey has continued its activities, it has shown an unusual resilience. We can buy their bread and cakes in several outlets. We show our support (just have a look at our waistlines) and  hopefully contribute to a more peaceful world.

Last Ramadan in Bangladesh

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!

Old Dhaka - a surrealistic melting pot

Old Dhaka is one of the most fascinating, incomprehensible and surreal places I have ever been to.  

Recently, I was fortunate enough to join a guided walk through the narrow alleys with Urban Study Group which is a group of enthusiastic young people with respect for the past and hope for the future. They do a wonderful job and I really pray for that their dreams of restoring the run-down historic buildings could become true one day.

Old Dhaka might have had a glorious past but its present shape is rather shabby. 

We toured the streets and sailed the river early on a Friday morning. It was really "quiet", especially after shab-e-barat, when muslims pray all night. There were a lot of tired and sleeping people in the mosques, streets and shops.

A bright young student became my personal guide. He has lived all his 23 years in old Dhaka and knows every corner of the for me totally illogical and crazy part of Dhaka. Nothing is functional but everything works - either you live in a soap factory or in the ruins of an old mansion. 

If Old Dhaka is the worn out heart of the capital, the river Buriganga represents the extremely dirty veins of the city. Buriganga is a water highway filled with river rickshaws, small boats, big boats, total chaos. 

The traffic rules are the same as in the streets: size matters, no respect. 

The water is extremely polluted but still people do their laundry in the in river, it is their shower.  As a transport way it has a huge economic impact.

Economic success hits very few,  this boy for example  "joins" social media by biting a phone line. 

Dhaka with a backbend

Have you ever had a feeling that your inner organs are in your throat? 

Recently, my milt has visited my breast, my kidneys are just under my armpits. Or this is how it feels when you twist and twist,  stretch and strecth at a yoga class.  

Due to security reasons, there is not much to do for foreigners in Dhaka.

Sad, since Dhaka is a 24/7 or rather 46/7 society. This city never rests.
I can be hard to believe but sometimes I feel that New York is a sleepy village compared with the hysteric, jammed, overpopulated, absurd life in Dhaka.
Actually, Dhaka really should take a collective deep breath in and out to relax and calm out.  

Thus, living in a never-ending home arrest, any activity is welcomed and applauded. 

Yoga is one of them. For some reason Dhaka is blessed with numerous wonderful, encouraging and professional teachers. 

It is important to add that Dhaka has no fancy yoga studios, rather some hot windowless bunkers with hoards of mosquitoes in strictly guarded foreigners' clubs.
 

I have done some yoga previously, mainly to strengthen a bad back but in Dhaka yoga has totally taken over. 

Yoga in the morning, in the evening, during the weekend. 

Luckily very few of the yoga rooms have mirrors, so the "perfect" moves and postures are only in my mind, not reality. 

The practice is good for the body and the soul but it is even more important to have something to do, be a part of a society when you are far away from your loved ones. A chat with your mat neighbor or a nice cup of tea after the exercise makes your day.
 

There are many people I would hardly recognize in office outfit though I know that they tend to clip their toe nails on Sundays, sweat garlic on Tuesdays and yawn a lot on Mondays. 

The phone shots have nothing to do with yoga. Still, after two years, the street scenes here are exotic.

Namaste!

Easter, Dhaka, year 1424

 Bengali New Year coincided with Good Friday this year.

Bangladesh celebrates the first day of the new year with colorful processions, fairs, songs and dances. 

People dress up, even my local food store's staff wore new and beautiful punjabis and sarees. 

I attended the festivities last year but due to the security situation, it was recommended to avoid large gatherings.

At home we celebrated Easter by displaying the one and only decoration we have.

Bangladeshis are really creative with decorations. With a few bambus and a couple of thousands lights they make wonders. This is from our street a couple of weeks ago.

For many people, even New Year´s day meant hard work. 

The construction site next to our house was in full action. Actually, whole Dhaka is a huge construction site, old buildings are demolished, new are being built day and night with methods that equal Gregorian calendar year 1424, i.e. mainly muscle power, without proper clothing, shoes or equipment.

Sad news from the domestic front.

"Madame, I cannot see anything", our housekeeper S. called one morning about a month ago. 

He lost his sight as a consequence of diabetes but he has now been in eye operations and will hopefully recover gradually.

I had noticed that his cleaning was not quite prefect, to put it mildly.  His cooking was, however, excellent even if he must have seen very little in the end.

Since we only have a couple of months left in Bangladesh, we decided not to hire a new housekeeper. (Jus in case you wonder: S. was generously compensated by us).

This sounds awful but I had not cooked a single meal since we moved to Dhaka. 

The kitchen was S's empire, we took care of the eating. So, if you think that my husband looks a lot thinner, blame my poor cooking. 

More from the domestic front.

As a flower lover, I bought a couple of dahlias to our balcony looking forward to the wonderful flowers I had seen everywhere. So far, I have only been fighting against insects eating the flowers during the night and the sun torturing the plants during the day. 

Anyway, the mango season is getting closer. These are not from my balcony.

Crowded and organized - Hong Kong Edition

 A long weekend in Bangladesh: the normal weekend Friday-Saturday plussed with Independence Day on Sunday. 

A typical time to leave Dhaka for a couple of days  - either for the Bangladeshi countryside or other South East Asian countries.

One of the great benefits of Bangladesh is that it's only a couple of hours flight from totally different cultures, religions, peoples. For us Bangladesh has offered a unique, once-in-a-lifetime-chance to see a lot of exciting places.

The most surprising feature of the countries in this region is that about the only thing in common they have is rice. 

Nobody in Asia can survive without rice irrespective of social status, political system or economic structure.

We are staying in Dhaka this weekend but had a little break in Hong Kong a week ago.

Rice, over population and political oppression seem to be things Bangladesh and Hong Kong share.

Otherwise, this city three hours flight from Dhaka was another planet.

We traveled from very high temperatures to a cold, almost freezing place. The first and only thing I bought was a winter jacket. 

Warmly dressed we were ready to explore the city. The infrastructure is impressive: a clean, affordable and highly functional metro system, very inexpensive water transport and good opportunities to walk off one's feet. Which we did.

Dhaka and Hong Kong are - to put it mildly - crowded. Dhaka is starting to built high rises, Hong Kong's highest buildings are just a small step from the Moon. 

Still, in Hong Kong there were a lot of green, unbuilt areas in the vicinity of the city center. I dragged my husband to a longer than planned hike in the green areas of the highest hills of the city. It was absolutely worth the effort in spite of my husband's  heavy breathing and soundless but still very audible protests. Our walk took place on a working day, the scenery paths may be busier during the weekend.

Hong Kong food markets are not for insect dislikers and smell sensitive people like me. But sure, we did it. Most of the items were not only exotic but also rather repulsive. It was hard to understand which kind of body parts or animals were for sale. On the other hand, I might have eaten all these with great appetite. 

Maybe it's the age but I have really missed museums and well curated exhibitions. Hong Kong has a bunch. "The Hong Kong Story" at the Hong Kong Museum of History was an impressive lesson in history.

Ok, the Toy Exhibition was visually more attractive. 

Dressed for the beach, unarmed in the Parliament

Homestretch ahead  but still much to do and see in Bangladesh.

This week I visited two iconic, very different places: Cox's Bazar and the Parliament. 

Cox's Bazar is one of the longest sandy beaches in the world. 

The coastal tourist city of Cox's Bazar is about an hour's flight from Dhaka's crazy busy, loud, dusty life. The 120 kilometers long beach area offers fresh sea air, amazing views of the Bay of Bengal and solitude, a seldom luxury in seriously overpopulated Bangladesh.

While my husband was at meetings, I walked hours and hours along the beach, occasionally accompanied by local children and millions of red crabs which very quickly disappeared in their holes when I tried to approach them.

People here seem to enjoy togetherness and large flocks but I deliberately avoided the crowded beaches.

The temperature was about 30+C (85+F) but thanks to a kind sea breeze, it was not hot at all. Not in even in a local beach outfit which has nothing to do with swimwear. People swim in their normal clothes both in the sea and in the pool. 

The magnificence of Cox's Bazar has, unfortunately, a tragic side since tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar land there with traumatic experiences and limited hope for the future.

The transition from the beach to the Parliament has to be fish. The waters round Cox's Bazar are full of fish and fishing boats. The Parliament building in Dhaka is surrounded by a man made lake, home for fish that is served at the Parliament members' club.

The Bangladesh Parliament complex is one of the largest legislative complexes in the world, also one of the most special. Not necessary beautiful but impressive.

The construction of the present Parliament complex began in 1961 by the then President of Pakistan as a permanent building for the federal legislature of both West Pakistan and East Pakistan. Bangladesh became independent in 1971 and the inauguration of the Parliament took place in 1982.

The then government appointed first a Bangladeshi architect to design the building. He wanted to give the task to Alvar Aalto or Le Corbusier. They were not available and finally the task went to Louis Kahn, an American architect.

The result is an enormous concrete palace with regular geometric shapes. 

It was not allowed to bring fire-arms nor to take pictures inside the building.  

In true banglastyle there were a lot of cobwebs and dust, too. Our guide told that the building is rather cold in the winter, with a large mosquito population.

The Parliament chamber had some funny features like a sound proof upper gallery for children and microphones that automatically stop functioning when the allocated speech time is over.