Living in Dhaka is an experience like no other. I do not think of myself as being especially patriotic, but living away from home for a significant period of time has a way of making one appreciate the little perks of life amongst one’s own people. It rekindles a spark of patriotism that makes one appreciate the ghastly things that altogether make up living in Dhaka an experience. Indeed, there is no denying that Dhaka has its way of making us put our sanity at stake for the sake of surviving but that being said, whether we like it or not, it is this madness and mayhem of the urban life that brings us together.
Recently a survey was conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit which ranked Dhaka as the second worst city in the world to live in while Harare, Zimbabwe being the worst. This was based on five broad categories- stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. For people living in Dhaka, this did not come as too much of a surprise. In fact, it came more like a way of stating the obvious. However, a string was still twanged within our hearts as no matter how difficult life here is and how much we have to struggle to get by every day; we all have that little sense of patriotism that often oozes out on 21 February, or when Bangladesh wins a match, or when we showcase a brilliant international show. This made me realize that we Bengalis have a more accepting attitude towards the little cruelty of life in Dhaka. Yet in the midst all that we manage to find that modest love for the country.
The one thing one would see every urban Bangladeshi complain about is the traffic of Dhaka city. No matter what time of the day you get out at, there is always the inevitable traffic. Nonetheless this too has its benefits. You see, when you start living in this city long enough, you soon realize that you can use ‘traffic’ as excuse for anything. Late for work- traffic; don’t want to go to evil colleague’s birthday- traffic; mother-in-law’s dog’s funeral- traffic. Starting from late-for-school detention to getting married- I have escaped it all blaming it on traffic. Now where else in the world can you do that! Even more so, these traffic jams are the source of living for many in this poverty-stricken country of ours. This is not in any sense discouraging working for a living or encouraging begging, but many in our country do not have a proper source of income and depend solely on what people decide to give them out of the goodness of their hearts. So what really would happen if we actually did not have any traffic problems? People would reach their destinations faster; there would not be any stable excuse for being late and it would benefit the economy because people would spend more time working and less time on traffic. All very lucrative, but until it is actually possible, we could simply be happy with whatever we have till now.
This is just one thing people keep complaining about without really analyzing the gravity of its benefits. Another thing I often hear my friends and family crabbing about is the adulteration in food. The other day, I was talking to a British friend of mine who seemed to be blown away at the creativity of the food adultery of Bangladesh. It is indeed quite amazing when you think the amount and variety of things we eat starting from human excretion and insect remains to powdered bricks and chemicals that are supposed to keep dead things alive and good God knows what it does to living things; and yet, there has been no report of any organic human explosion or growth of a third ear from our forehead. Given all the adulterated food that we eat, that is probably the best that can happen to us. It seems like our digestive system has trained itself to digest pretty much anything. Now, that is hard to find!
It is not only that. Only in Dhaka can you find suspicious liquid-like elements hurling through the most unsuspecting of places or people taking it upon them to control traffic using nothing but their vocal cords or even delightfully unexpected holidays because of hartals and political chaos. Getting chased by severely diseased dogs; attacked by flying mucus launched from buses or being cursed at by beggars for paying too less- we have it all. Travelling clean and in one piece through the streets of Dhaka becomes a strategic- game all in itself.
Thus when a bunch of people who do not even live amongst us tell us that our home is the second worst of its kind, based on mechanical calculations using categories and figures, it does make me wonder whether we should let mere statistics dishearten us. The country in still young, with only 39 years of independence, thus we should use our assessment by observing bodies as tool to improve living conditions here. However at the same time we should embrace what we already have and till matters can be improved, be content with it. From morning till night, living is Dhaka is like running through a minefield. So when a day comes to an end, I thank God for giving me the ability to survive Dhaka and in the process, making it so entertaining.
). The point here is that, at present,by God’s grace, I am content with my life and the smooth pace of it. And since I don’t need to (over)think about my problems and issues, I find the brain-space to observe and think about other rather strange things I come across every other day. A dear friend once told me that to truly experience something from all perspective, one should be a little detached from it. So even though things happen within my radius of life, I try to stay detached from them for better observing. So does this mean I am detached from everything? No no..this is where I use my little priority scale and don’t let silly tricks of survival get the better of me.
