Ever since the pandemic started in Mach of 2020, life as we knew it had changed drastically. A most noticeable change has been the restriction on our travels. As someone who has an elderly parent living in another continent I had been patiently waiting for the situation to improve so I could go visit. But it had not. So, around the Christmas holidays I took a chance, booked myself a ticket, fulfilled all the covid-related travel obligations, packed a suitcase, and finally boarded a plane. I started from North America and flew all the way to Southeast Asia. I went to the city of Dhaka, spent a few days with my father, and then came back home to Houston. In retrospect it looks easy, but the trip was not without its headaches. But hey life is an adventure! And ‘Fortune favors the bold’, says Virgil. It is curious how my voice gained power after the travels were behind me. Truth be told I had been anxious and solicitous during my entire trip due to the surrounding uncertainties. Even before I had landed into my final destination, a new variant of the virus was discovered in England and all flights to and from England were cancelled by many countries, so I secretly prayed that no such mutating virus be discovered in America before I returned home. My prayers were answered. Once back home, I allowed the pandemic-travel-related-stress to slowly flush out of me. I had wished to write about my travel experiences immediately. But in the blink of an eye a month has passed me by. But then the stress relief process and procrastination are a powerful combination. I blame the duo for the late coverage. But it’s better late than never.
As I sat down pondering on my short trip to Dhaka, I felt that something was amiss this time. A moderate pounding upon my brain revealed that it was the lack of traffic jams. Those who had been to Dhaka in recent years know how bad the traffic had gotten. But surprisingly it was very light during my trip. From a quick analysis I decided that it was due to the timing of my trip. I was there during the last week of December. Many people were on vacation, schools were closed, most people still worked from home due to corona. But I must issue the disclaimer that I reached my opinion based on only one trip through the city. It also occurred to me at the same time that I had not been to the city in the month of December since 2005.
Because I have not been to Dhaka in a winter month in a long time I had forgotten how festive it can get during this time. There are trade fairs, ‘pitha uthsob’ (food fairs), badminton, concerts, and weddings. Winter is the official wedding season. I consider myself lucky if my trip ever coincides with a wedding invitation. Because the ‘kachchi biryani’ (mutton pilaf) dish at weddings is a treat like no other. There perhaps was a time when my purposes for going to the wedding parties was to check out the fancy outfits that ladies put on. But priorities shift with time and age. My main objective these days was to indulge into the Bangladeshi wedding feasts. Ahh the aromas, how I miss it! But there was no wedding invitation this trip either. All typical activities were missing this winter. No wedding invitations and no trade fairs. The covid impact was quite noticeable, although most businesses seemed to have opened. One morning when I took a morning walk I did come across a lady selling ‘chitoi pitha’ on the roadside, and I enjoyed eating those. It was a small consolation for not being able to attend any ‘pitha uthshov’. I also could not visit the ‘New market’, or ‘Nilkhet’, which makes my trip rather incomplete. New market is one of the oldest markets in the city (whoa an oxymoron!). it is outdated by today’s standards, and outshined by the sophisticated and modern shopping malls strewn all over. But I had been going to the New market ever since I was in the kindergarten. I remember the rows of bookstores to the left side of the second gate which used to be my main attraction. When I visited there in my childhood I would always try to sneakily read pages from newly released story books while my parents were looking for something in the book stores, and would be so engrossed that I often failed to notice that my family were done and waiting for me, still I would try to manage a few more lines until my mom threw in the “I’ll need to marry you off to the shopkeeper’s son so you can read all the books in there” line. Only then I would come out running, I didn’t know what she meant but sure sounded like a threat. I think I was allowed to buy one new story book each month, but that simply was not enough. Apart from the bookstores, New market had everything that you wanted or needed. Another memory is, whenever there was a wedding in the extended family, a large group of family members went there for the wedding shopping, and whenever a big purchases were about to be made, be it at the gold store or at the clothing store, the shopkeepers suddenly turned very courteous and would ask if we wanted a Coke, a Pepsi or a Fanta. That would surely snap one out of the boredom of tagging along these endless shopping sprees. But I could not go to the New market this trip. I simply could not risk visiting such a crowded place. ‘Nilkhet’ is another place that I would never miss visiting in normal times. It is a second-hand book market, or shacks rather, where I had spent countless hours during my university days, where finding a good book had felt nothing short of finding a rare treasure. But not this time. Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. We delight in the good memories just as we are dispirited by the bad ones. I for one rarely miss the chance to rejuvenate when something as simple as visiting a place can bring you so much joy. But for covid I let go of that joy. You can say that I did it for my existence. Should I have or shouldn’t I have? What would Nietzsche say? Perhaps I could have scored Nietzsche’s study on nihilism at Nilkhet? Alas I will never know!
Covid also put a restriction on another main attraction for my visit to Dhaka which is food. While I did enjoy the home cooked food it would have been nice to mix it up with some restaurant food. My most favorite are the Thai restaurants. I assure you that the Thai and Chinese food that Dhaka offers are so good that the people from Thailand and China can only dream of it.
All facetiousness aside, I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to go and see my father who has been lonely and alone, suffering from both ailments and covid-effects alike. As I left him, I found him sinking back into his solitude, and I searched for strength from so many lines I had read but none came back to me except Hamlet’s. ‘The rest is silence’ (Shakespeare).
My Imaginarium 