When I went to Bangladesh !!

-

After much anticipation and planning, me and my husband chose to visit Bangladesh. We had the excitement within us which is seen among people who recently are able to obtain their passports for the first time. We had been telling each and every relative and friend of ours about this recently procurred legal instrument. 

Many suggested Thailand, Malaysia and some even suggested Srilanka who had been there recently and were sharing their expedition to  the Raavan's land. But something had always been bothering me since childhood to see the places where my origin existed; my ancestors thrived. And I declared Bangladesh as the place of our first foreign visit.

We contacted a tourist guide who made arrangements for our stay as well as the entire tour of seven days while my husband himself took the onus of making the tickets for the both ways.  Everything happened as we had planned. We landed at Dhaka after which we were received by the travel agency. One of my special demand was the visit to the village which I had mentioned. It was quite far from Dhaka because of which we had even paid extra charges. 

It was on second day. We were taken by a SUV. The road was not cooperating at certain places giving us horrible bumpy rides. Being the overly complaining person, I had objected for a SUV as the charges were quite high. But on this lurchy  roadway, I scolded my inner person for being so argumentative to the facts that I am actually unknown to.

Finally reaching at the village after a hectic sojourn of four hours, we were shifted to the small resort kind of structure. Few families had also come after us of which none belonged to India. We, were actually foreigners for them and I was elated within for this new representation. Few were talking to us with much enthusiasm about India and the West Bengal. 

It was a small village and so a day long visit was enough to take a tour of the entire place. We went to the address of my great grandfather.  It was a huge building now, inhabited by his uncle's successors. Few remains of the old dilapidated pre-independent bunglow was still found and surprisingly we could see people living inside it too. The old and gnarled Banayan tree still stood sternly near the huge entrance. This was a tree with which my grandfather shared a great memory. 

We passed the house and had lunch at a small motel. The authentic Bangladeshi food. It reminded me of my grandmother and mother. The indistinguishable taste and similar spices tossed in the typical 'gram' or 'village' style. The fish curry ignited my taste buds as never before. It was a beautiful day spent amidst nature and reminiscence.

Next few days, were the trip to the  tourist places and finally our sojourn ended on the seventh day. I was a woman who travelled very less especially by air and so would stick to my husband and go along with him clutching his arm like a toddler. I would be panicky at the security check where we would be separated for an ephemeral. At the baggag counter, we loaded our luggages to be taken by the airline thats when the lady at the counter looked nervous for a second and informed us, ' mam, your flight is tomorrow and not today but your husband's flight is today.' The angry me bursted out at her in full vigour until she showed the ticket for validation in the next minute. 

We couldn't believe our eyes and my husband who was supposed to be the major culprit in this mayhem, did not utter a single word from his mouth. I looked at him in disbelief n now, he looked vulnerable.  There was chaos because of us and, me, the almost to be senior citizen of this country, was howling in trepidition.

The airline was nervous too. They took us to their office and after some phone calls to their parent office at India, made arrangements for me at the same flight. God was great as only one seat was left on that flight. They canceled my next day's flight and after deducting the cancellation charges I could board this flight with my husband. The flight ofcourse delayed because of this nuisance created at our stupidity's expense. But we apologized to the passengers who had to bear with us. And the basic  family squabble between me and my husband started the moment we landed at Kolkata as we were sundered in the plane due to the unavailablibility of seats. 

It was a trip to be remembered and an experience of my first time foreign journey and how I reached back to my homeland, India.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR

-
Image
Who would rescue when the lonely Suzain would find no solace in her solitude? She kept wondering. Always. She would not go out to mingle with people and sit at her desk all day writing something beautiful, that no one had read. She says it is lovely but who knows what it is. One fine morning she woke up determined to conclude her loneliness. Dressed beautifully, as she said, gone out of the house in search of the knight in shining armor. She rambled in places and coffee shops. She ate and shopped. Upon reaching home, she realized she had not done what she was meant to: search for the knight in shining armor. So went out the next morning again, determined and confident, as she said. She saw the water park, and after walking a few miles, excited and elated, she bought the ticket and went inside to explore it. She had fun while she tried every game. Came out of it in the evening, tired but happy. She lost track of her determination and surrendered herself to the cozy bed at her home and s...
Read more

THE ROAD WAS NARROW

-
Image
The road was narrow, and so were the people's perceptions. They would fight physically at the slightest instigation or verbal accusations. There was no law and order. The intellectuals were the decision-makers of the society. They would condemn the common junta when they considered things to be wrong.   In the name of religion and knowledge, the learned philosophers and the clergymen would take advantage of the people. The people were declared bad because they thought so. It was the ‘moral/religious poaching’. There were thieves, cheats, and the hypocrites. Besides those belonging to the priority class of the society, the women were treated as commodities. They had no voice and could only follow whatever the male section decided but their toughness was commendable. Their desires, sexual as well as mental and intellectual, not being fulfilled, made them go wild and take certain steps to be regretted later. There were fewer or no male-female interactions thus, leading to secrecy, f...
Read more

MY OLD GRANNY

-
Image
She had been sitting unwaveringly for the last two hours now. Not a single drop of tear had rolled down her gentle and wrinkled face. The only words she repeated whenever someone would talk to her were, ‘Good for him. Who would look after him if he had been bedridden? I am too old now.’ He was 97, and still took care of his lady, who was in her 80s. She was sick and had aging, fragile bones. He was, though, sturdy enough to hold her hand and walk her inside the house; he had been her delicate buttress-weak physically but morally strong enough to support her. Even though he was sometimes sick, he had never stepped away from performing his domestic duties towards his better half, children, and grandchildren. She had been away at her daughter’s place for a few days after many years and could not talk to him for the last time. She regretted. But they had been together for 65 years, and now they needed no words to communicate; they just knew each other’s thoughts, and so life went on. ...
Read more