Week 41: Second cricket loss, first time trapped in an elevator, several disruptive power outages

41^st-1st in Dhaka 6/11

I’ve noticed that the midday highs and the nightly lows are now only separated by three to five degrees in the weather forecasts. It seems like the heat is trapped, and nights don’t really cool down anymore.

Took Ben to lunch to try some foods that, honestly, I don’t eat anymore here. At least one I used to love, biryani. The other, borhani, I’ve never liked the few times I’ve tried it.

After spending the morning at home, we went to New Market to pick up our clothing from the tailor. Everything fit very well, and we were happy with our results. Ben now has the task of bringing his stuff around the world. We also ordered some beach-like shirts, one for each of us, and went to a button store to choose what buttons we’d like. We walked around the market for awhile after looking for some items of interest.

We then headed to Gulshan for Aaron’s goodbye party. He leaves tomorrow morning. I’d never really been to any of the foreign clubs in Dhaka, and was amazed to see the luxury some people choose to enjoy. Tonight was their weekly cookout, with a variety of meats, including pig, which you never see in Bangladesh. I got chicken skewers, Ben got shrimp skewers. Lots of people came to bid their goodbyes to Aaron. The system they work on here for payment is through a complex booklet you have to buy of a set cost. As a result, Ben and I were left with $8.50 (yes dollars) of credit, so we bought a double cappuccino, a latte, and a slice of cheesecake.

41^st-2nd in Dhaka 6/12

Today is Ben’s last full day in Bangladesh. We were at home in the morning, Ben had to plan out a lot of things for his trip to India, and my slow internet makes that a long process. I went out and made some copies of things for him: maps, plane tickets, etc.

The day was centered around an international cricket match between Bangladesh and India at Mirpur Stadium. The game is the third One Day International match between the three nations in the Tri Nations Series: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Bangladesh had already lost to Pakistan, and India had beaten Pakistan, so things were not looking up for Bangladesh’s match versus India (well, honestly that is known weeks beforehand.)

I had to pick up tickets for Luke and his friend Stephanie who were coming later, so I told Ben and Ayon to go inside and I’d meet them there. The ticket counter had three windows, two for the cheap Gallery seats, and one for the Reserved and VVIP seats. Well despite the prices attached to those latter tickets, that particular line was the only one that went through a giant mud puddle. You had to walk along the bamboo handrails separating the lines to stay out of the puddle. There are always penalties for sitting in the better seats.

I met up with everyone inside, already there along with Ben and Ayon were Hridoy (Ayon and Jayita’s cousin), Jayita, and her fiancée Apurba. Later Opu would arrive, and then finally Luke and Stephanie later on. (pic: Hridoy/Opu/Ayon/Ben at the match having a serious discussion on the state of Bangladeshi cricket)

Bangladesh had chosen to bat first, and the inning went well, they scored 222 runs and lost their last wicket in the final over. It looked like Bangladesh could have a fighting chance if they played well defensively in the second inning. The game was quite warm, and the sun blared on us for about an hour, causing people around to shield themselves with whatever they had around (flags, hats, bookbags.) We had several bottles of cold beverages and two ice creams to keep cool. (pics: India bowls to Bangladesh in the Tri-Nations Series, Ben/Opu/Hridoy/Jayita watch the match, Bangladeshi cricket supporters waving the national flag, blocking out the sun by whatever way possible)

During the innings break, a friend of Jayita’s found us. He works for the Bangladesh Cricket Board, and insisted that he bring us to the VVIP section to sit. He didn’t need to twist our arms. We arrived at this section by actually leaving the stadium and then coming back in through several security checks. But once inside, we had incredible field-side seats.

From our excellent seating position, however, we watched as Bangladesh got dismantled by India. India scored runs at a run rate of over 7.0, a high pace. The game felt a bit slower as we watched Bangladesh lose. At one point Ben and I found some excellent game food beyond the ice cream, samosas, chingaras, soda, and chips that were being sold in the stands. A meal of a chicken cutlet, two spring rolls, and an excellent bread roll. Our friends left slowly, Jayita and Apurba first, Luke and Stephanie next. At the end of the match, only Ayon, Opu, Hridoy, Ben and I were left to cheer on two end-game wickets collected by Bangladesh. (pics: Ben/myself in our new seats, field view from the new seats)

Upon coming home, Ben wanted to update his blog one last time, and get packed. Meanwhile we also watched the movie Darjeeling Limited. A perfect fit since Ben is about to go across India.

41^st-3rd in Dhaka 6/13

Got up very early and brought Ben to the bus counter to leave for Kolkata. No issues, he boarded, and is now on his next leg of his world tour: India for three days before heading to Sweden to meet with his family.

Spent the middle part of the day updating the blog, posting photos, and applying for jobs. Also caught up on all the blogs I read, as I’d stopped reading when Ben was here.

Moweena didn’t show up, so I didn’t have a fresh breakfast. This resulted in me not eating much today. I finally got lunch around 4pm, and it was just then that Jen and Ben called to invite me over for dinner at their place tonight. Good thing I didn’t order too much.

Before heading over to their place for dinner, a group of Muslim men came to my door. I answered, and they asked if there were any Muslims at home. They said they had come straight from mosque and they wanted to share a prayer. Finding it was only me, they proceeded to other doors. But when they came back downstairs from the floors above, I intercepted them, and inquired about what they wanted to share, and why today. It turned out that today was a great day of prayer at the mosque, and they wanted to share what they were feeling with others who had not come. They were reminding other Muslims how great it is to be a Muslim, and how great Allah is. It was neat to hear about the passion they had felt inspired to go out as groups and share. Although I didn’t get to share a prayer with them since I don’t prayers in the Koran, I was glad to be an audience to them and to hear the messages they had come to talk about.

Dinner at Jen and Ben’s was fun. Luke and Sam showed up as well, both were students with Jen last year in AIBS. Jen and Ben cooked tortillas and the appropriate fillings. It was delicious, and I ate a lot. Jen and Ben’s friends came over, two Bangladeshi girls, and this instantly changed the language of the evening to Bengali. Although they didn’t like the tortillas, we had a fun time talking with them for the hour or so they stayed.

A story I wrote for Fulbright when they requested stories from Fulbrighters got posted on the front page of their website. See the link here and in the sidebar.

41^st-4th in Dhaka 6/14

Today I really got back to work. I finished the pre-processing of all my buses I had collected data on, and then processed two of those. I did this all in two different restaurants, just to get out of the house.

I had been at home all morning, doing photo stuff, getting things done online. I joined a website that allows you to find travel partners. Ever since Landon got word from his company that he can’t come with me to Southeast Asia, I’ve had a feeling of doom that I’ll be traveling alone. So I joined travelchums.com and a few others. Looking forward to seeing what happens.

But I was also feeling real sick today for some reason. After being out working, I was feeling exhausted. Beat down. Weak. Worn out. I put a movie on and sat and enjoyed, didn’t feel like moving. After the movie was over, I just shut my eyes and slept right where I was. I was too tired to get up to brush my teeth or shower. Finally around 1AM, I woke up, showered, and went to my real bed.

41^st-5th in Dhaka 6/15

Woke up feeling very refreshed. Got a reply on travelchums from someone wanting to travel. That was great! Hope more show up. Signed up for a bunch more travel buddy websites, and posted on a few message boards. Hope some of these are effective. I would think people who post on there, or are active, are actually wanting to make something of their time there.

Talked to Dad since it was Father’s Day. That was very nice. Would be great to be at home sharing it with him, would be a real treat.

Processed three buses today. Local buses take longer to process than ticket buses because there are more stops, and more boards and alights per stop, and the stops are longer. This all adds up to what feels like less productivity. I don’t get as frequent feelings of completion because I go through stops and buses so slowly.

Felt very sick again at night. Couldn’t take my cold shower. Wore a shirt to bed for the first time since winter. Then woke up middle of the night sweating. Was up for awhile lying in bed.

41^st-6th in Dhaka 6/16

Today Shegufta had promised to start working with me on a more regular basis. We planned to meet in BUET’s computer lab at 10. I gave her the bus stop data to process. Although this takes a longer amount of time, I felt because it involved less types of data to work with while still requiring a fairly active regiment of work, as compared to uploading information to the database, it was fit best for her. As well, since it takes longer than the database entry, daily I can enter what she does the day before into the database quickly, and then move onto analyzing, which I haven’t done enough of yet.

Currently I’m learning visual basic and how to write macros and seeing how I can apply this to my project. This also involves making decisions on how I want to manage my data, and in what programs to analyze, and which to store.

Only hiccup of the day was when Shegufta lost all the work she’d done over 1.5 hours. I had warned her to save often because of the computer lab’s eventual power outage, and of course she didn’t save at all, and lost all her work when we lost power.

After she left, I stayed a bit longer working, and then headed out. I got in the elevator, and its doors closed, and just then the power went out. I was stuck. Then it came on, and the doors opened, and I decided it’d be smart to get out before the power goes off again, but before I could get out, the elevator reshut its doors (it seemed to be restarting a routine) and started going down. Just as we were going down the power went out again. I sat there wondering what happens when you’re stuck in an elevator when the power is out. Power went back on again, and the elevator started moving again, and reached the bottom floor, but the doors wouldn’t open. I was there for 10 minutes with some man outside telling me to “wait.” Then magically the doors opened, and he wasn’t even standing there, and I left the building.

I came home and spent a lot of time working on visual basic, learning more of what it can do and practicing writing small programs with my excel tables. I enjoy learning new programs, even though I don’t pursue new ones actively.

It got windy this evening, and a fluorescent light bulb that’d just been leaning on my balcony (Mohan left it here) got blown over and crashed, scattering glass everywhere. Had to clean that up.

41^st-7th in Dhaka 6/17

Another day feeling a bit weak and tired. Not sure what’s wrong.

At BUET Shegufta processed two buses for me, while I databased two, and then spent some writing, cleaning my data in the database, and fumbling around trying to get my Visual Basic operations to work.

Spending this time at BUET with Shegufta has allowed me to ask her what the giant bell is that rings at times throughout the day. She explained the bell announces exam times during the exam period, two hours left, one hour left, finish time. Heard all over campus. A neat idea that can stay a tradition for sure.

Working in the lab more often now has allowed me to discover some of the annoyances. For one, the computers won’t allow me to run macros or visual basic operations. I don’t understand how an engineering university’s computers aren’t allowed to do this. I understand the worry that students might make harmful macros, but other universities worldwide seem to figure a way out around this.
Like many offices and schools, certain words are blocked from being to be searched through a search engine. I’ve discovered one of those words at BUET is “analysis”, a word which I think could be useful for people in the fields of science and math.
The last and most significant are the power outages. Since we are all on PCs, when the power goes out, all the PCs turn off. BUET does have a generator, but nothing more, so although power comes back quick, we lose anything that hasn’t been saved. And since the power outages come randomly, you have to save all the time. Not usually a big problem, but because the computers are slow, and my files are large, saving takes about fifteen seconds each time. This adds up and slows down productivity. Today, in five hours, we had six losses of power, one for about ten minutes. We just sit there in the dark.

I've started to learn to read Hindi in preparation for traveling to India. It's not hard now that I already read Bengali with ease. I'm using an internet website that has simple pages with the characters on them and does it's best to make lessons

Week 28: An improvement in Bangladesh's cricket team might help Bengali's global future

28^th-1st in Dhaka 3/12

Stopped by the stadium market to buy a new voice recorder. Mine is working just fine, but I needed another for my undergraduate assistants. Cost was pretty high, but I’m hoping I can sell it on EBay after we’re done with it. It also doesn’t have as many neat features as my Sony has. That’s a big downside. For example, it doesn’t have a clock, so it doesn’t record the time a track is recorded.

Then rushed up to Banani to drop off the payment and passport copies for my parents and my trip to the Sundarbans in two weeks. Grabbed some lunch at a fast food place, and boarded the Dibanishi bus for my second route of the day, from Banani to Dhanmondi.

This ended up being a very very interesting bus ride. About one third of the way into the route, the bus ran out of gas. I always had a fear of this happening during my studies. It means the route for my work is technically a throwaway since it wasn’t a finished route. But I’m already far from the start, and it’s a pain to start over. So that was annoying. Well the other people on the bus had more human concerns, such as “what a pain this is, I just paid good money for you to take me home, and now I have to buy another ticket” kind of concern.

Everyone got off the bus when we pulled over. Yelling ensued. I stayed on the bus not really sure if we’d get gas and go again. Finally I got off, and waited. Then people seemed to convince the driver to get back on the bus, so I did as well, to see what happens. The driver got in the seat but wouldn’t turn on the bus. A crowd of fifteen men have surrounded the drivers seat now, and they are all yelling at the driver, “Drive the bus, drive the bus!” It seems like the situation is reaching a breaking point. The driver finally turns on the bus, to all the yells and screams he is getting, shows everyone that it doesn’t have enough gas. More yelling ensures. At this point, lots of people have come on the bus thinking we might go if the crowd of men can convince the bus driver to drive regardless of gas level.

The bus is about half full, and I then see the driver turn off the bus and start to get out of his seat. Lots of yelling and screaming comes out of the crowd of men, and all of a sudden the crowd of men explodes. Punches are being thrown, people are being thrown, lots of yelling and cursing. The crowd of fighting men starts to move its way to the back of the bus, where most passengers are waiting. Girls and women start screaming, running to try and avoid the fight. One girl even hides behind me. Girls are banging on the back door from the inside of the bus begging someone to open it. They are crying and frantically screaming. The fight of men is quickly approaching us, and then the back door opens. The girls surge out, then the fight surges out following them, spilling literally onto the street.

Now on the street the fight continues, except now people have grabbed sticks and are beating a select few with them. The fight breaks free a bit and people start running down the street, yelling screaming and beating. All the while a highway’s worth of traffic is speeding (at slow Dhaka speeds) by. I get off the bus realizing not much is going to come of this tonight.

The bus is now sitting empty, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere the driver pops up, jumps on the bus, closes the door, turns the bus on, and takes off speeding away.

I just stand on the side of the road trying to grasp what just happened before me. It seems all the passengers have scattered except me, whether fighting or to escape the fight.

Overall, I guess the lesson learned tonight is always make sure you have enough gas, and hide the sticks if you don’t.
This is fight number 18.

Got a knock on the door soon after arriving home.
It was the girls from the family next door and they were asking to come in to see something (I couldn’t understand the vocabulary they were using.) Well they knew where to find what they were looking for, the circuit breaker!
Apparently my apartment has the circuit breaker for both my place and the place next door. Their power was out so they had flip some switches. This happened once more later on.
The reason I have their breakers is because we are actually in the same apartment, but the doorway between us was covered up, and now it’s two apartments.

28^th-2nd in Dhaka 3/13

Met up in the morning with Arjun and Shegufta in Azimpur for bus riding research assistance. I gave them the instructions on what we were going to do today. I laid out the names of all the bus stops we would encounter on our first route, so that way they weren’t surprised by anything. We were going to each take the same company, one at a time. Meaning one of us would have to be the last to go and wait around for awhile. And one would have to be the first to arrive at our destination, and wait around while. Arjun went first, Shegufta second, and myself last so that I could ensure they all got on the right buses and were feeling ready. The ticket counter folks were baffled by why I bought three tickets but we all got on different buses. By the time I finally left on my bus, 20 minutes later, they understood because they talked to me the whole time.

I was real nervous to see them off, wished them luck. For me it was simply another data collection, for them it was their first alone.

When we met up at the end, they seemed pretty okay. We got lunch and talked a bit about how the process went. They both are novice bus riders, so also are adjusting to that.
We had lunch, they got briyani and I got fish. Took some photos at our lunch stop. (pic: Shegufta/Arjun, BUET four-years and my research assistants, at our lunch stop while data collecting)

Took our second bus of the day from Uttara to Motijheel. The headway between buses was real long, so they both had arrived when I was only halfway through my route, meaning they had to wait awhile.

The day took longer than I thought. Likely because of all the waiting involved for 3 buses to come and go.

28^th-3rd in Dhaka 3/14

Today I finally get to see a cricket match live! South Africa vs Bangladesh at Sher-E-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur. I met up with Ayon, Opu, Annita, and her husband Auvi there at the stadium. (pics: front entrance to stadium where fans sitting in the Gallery enter, rear of the stadium where fans sitting in the Concourse enter, what else would be played behind a cricket stadium than cricket, Opu came unprepared and had to buy a headband at the stadium)

At the bus stop to board the bus to the stadium Mohan was actually boarding too, so we took the route together. I told him the story about our apartment being half painted in the stairway since he moved out and he was laughing really hard, had to wipe his eyes. He said our landlord is a miser, and that’s likely why.

We had seats in the clubhouse section, which was the middle price range of the three seating areas, and the price variation was huge. The gallery cost Tk80, the clubhouse Tk300, and the VVIP section (yes, that’s for very very important people) was Tk1500. If you are a VIP you’re out of luck, no section for you. You have to find a way to double your V status or sit with us commoners. All areas were covered with overhangs constructed of bamboo and sheets. The gallery area was laid out so that you just sat on the concrete seats. The clubhouse had plastic chairs, and the VVIP section had folding chairs.(pics: the scoreboard in the Gallery seating area, view of the field from the Concourse section, the bamboo and sheet structure covering the seats)

It was neat to see the teams come out. All the fans seemed to be cheering and screaming when South Africa came out, and I asked Ayon why we would cheer for them, and he said, “We are just letting them know that we are here, and that we will be loud.”

Bangladesh however, did not perform how we’d like them too. They did even worse in this match than they had in the last two matches the last few days. Really sad to see them go down. They were doing okay at scoring runs, but lost wickets early on and never could recover after that. They were out of wickets with more 7 overs remaining. (pics: Bangladesh batting, batting, and taking runs, South Africa getting bowled to by Bangladesh)

During the match, it was hot. We got ice cream 3 times! Sometime during the 25^th over Megan finally showed up, so Ayon, Opu, and I went out to meet her at the gate to give her a ticket. It was neat to have her meet my friends for the first time after hearing about them so much.

For lunch, we went to Opu’s house. His mom served us a big meal to full us for cheering during the second inning when South Africa would be batting. Although we knew it was hopeless for Bangladesh, since South Africa could score that many runs in probably just 30 overs.

The second inning was a bit cooler as the sun wasn’t on us anymore. We sat in the lower level of the clubhouse section for a little bit, but soon left, as the fans were getting rowdy and rude there. They were cheering against Bangladesh because of the poor performance. They were booing the team captain and all the players who came near them.

The game ended in a loss, South Africa got a trophy, and we all left. Except for Opu, we boarded a bus and headed down to Baily Road for some fuchka. (pics: Ayon/Opu during the first inning, Auvi/Annita during the first inning, Annita/Megan/Ayon watching the second inning, myself after the conclusion of the match)

28^th-4th in Dhaka 3/15

I spent almost the entire day in BUET’s lab today. Had a huge backlog of data processing to do. I tried my best not to browse the internet and just do my work.

For lunch I went to my favorite restaurant near the campus and got a burger and fries and brought it back to campus to eat. Got some ice cream from the ice cream cart which is front of our campus’ gates.
Went home at 9pm, very late. Bought some vegetables on the way home.

I kept meaning to mention this but Ethan Allen furniture gallery is in Bangladesh (and Thailand as well.) Why do I care, well my street name in which I spent most of my childhood is Ethan Allen Rd. So as kids, whenever we saw the famous furniture store in our area we’d giggle and joke that we really live at the store. And whenever people would ask our address, we would tell them, and they’d chuckle and ask, “Like the furniture store.” Sometimes when I felt like being smart I’d say in the return, “No, like the 18^th century hero of the Revolutionary War who led the Green Mountain boys during the charge of Fort Ticonderoga.”
Anyway, here’s a photo of the store front in Thailand, and I still need to grab one from the one here in Dhaka. It’s in Gulshan-1, southwest of the intersection. I remember the first time I saw it I almost fell out of my rickshaw in surprise. (pic: Ethan Allen store in Bangkok)

28^th-5th in Dhaka 3/16

Another day in the BUET computer lab again. Trying to plow through all this backlog of data processing I have to do. At one point I had to go to Arjun’s dorm room and grab the voice files he recorded last Thursday.

Realized today that the $75 voice recorder I bought for other people to help me on this project doesn’t connect to my computer. Tried it on Arjun’s computer, and it didn’t work there either. Tried a different cord, didn’t work. So it’s the actual recorder’s problem, not anything else. I think the USB jack is messed up. Returning it is near impossible as things bought from the stadium market stay bought (and are rarely exchanged for.) I might try bringing it to a repair guy and see what they can do since repairs are so cheap here.

Recently I’ve adapted the Bangladeshi meal pattern which is breakfast soon after you get up (for me that’s about 8 am), lunch around 2 or 3 pm, and dinner around 10:30 pm. I also have a second breakfast around 10 am before I head to BUET, and tea and snacks around 6-7pm. One of the reasons I don’t eat until 10:30 pm is that I come home from work tired, hot, and gross. And the idea of hot food at that point is unappetizing. Plus reheating it at the stove is a hot process and not what I want to do upon returning.
Another reason I’m eating this schedule is I’m eating more at home, since my cook makes a lot of food and I don’t want it to go to waste.

Recently temperatures have been 95+ daily, and we’re supposed to have 100+ later this week. That’s me talking Fahrenheit though…Bangladesh talks Celsius (but my readership is more than 50% from the USA.)

28^th-6th in Dhaka 3/17

Stayed home and got things done. Did a few more routes on processing. Worked on doing my recordings from the recorder which won’t upload to the computer. After many failed ideas of how to do that, I ended up just letting all the tracks play while my good recorder recorded it. And then uploaded it all as one major track from the good recorder!

Midday I got my sandals repaired. I’d noticed that some of the stitches holding the straps to the sole had gotten undone or loose. So it was time to bring them to street side repairman.
Scattered around are many shoe repairmen. In my neighborhood, there’s about one every few hundred meters. They all look pretty much have the same setup. They sit on the sidewalk and people come by with shoe problems. I only got my shoes restitched, but it looks like they do polishing, reforming, and many other shoe things I wouldn’t know how to describe. Real fast too, to get my shoes restitched it took about 5 minutes.
Hope they hold up for a long time. (pic: shoe repairman and his equipment on the sidewalk)

In the evening I went to New Market to pick up my suit. But the tailor said it wasn’t ready, and said it’d be a few more days. Oh well, no rush. Since I had some cash to pay for the suit in my pocket, I headed across the street to buy a knife for my boua, and ended up buying four t-shirts I liked as well, as part of my “buy stuff here because it is cheap but don’t wear it until I get back to the US” plan.

28^th-7th in Dhaka 3/18

Gas fire at the stove today. I heard Moweena scream, and when I came to see what was up, I saw water all over my kitchen. She told me how there was a gas leak at the back of the stove, and a huge flame had gone up while she was cooking. She had thrown a pot of water on it to put it out. She seemed rattled. The problem seemed to be that the gas connection from the wall was not done properly (and I knew this but there hadn’t been a problem yet) and today just happened today where it deteriorated enough to burst.
She tried forming a new seal out of soap, but it didn’t work. She told me to talk to the landlord to tell him of the problem. Or get a repairman myself to come check it out.

Had to head out quickly after the morning’s excitement to Baridhara. I had been invited my former class to go attend a lecture by Dr. William Radice (wiki and personal site), the author of the Teach Yourself Bengali book we used in all my courses. It was being sponsored by the university through which we had our Bengali course, and I was excited to meet the man behind my entire Bengali education.

I’m very excited to give the highlights and my thoughts on the lecture, as one of my favorite bloggers, Saket Vora, does week after week on his blog. In fact, the number of cool speakers who he goes to see at Stanford made me include that as criteria in my graduate school search: neat lectures by important people in the industry or who have neat things to say.
Well I was glad I finally got to hear someone who is at the top of their field in Bangladesh. William Radice is one of the premier writers and translators for Bengali, producing many texts including great translations of Bengali’s most famous writer Rabindranath Tagore and the book I used in my Bengali classes. He currently is a professor at the University of London. (pic: Dr. Radice giving his lecture on "Bengali's Global Future")

He was lecturing on “Bengali’s Global Future”, and in his talk he talked on a number of interesting topics. As Saket usually precedes such writings in his blog with a disclaimer like thing, I’ll do the same, copying it word for word…because he says it so well!
“I’ll note some salient thoughts I took away from the talk. Anything I attribute to [Radice] is a paraphrase, not to be taken verbatim.”

*He immediately started his speech about the difference in Bengali and Bangla. This was covered because he had submitted the topic of his talk as “Bengali’s Global Future”, but without asking him, the organizers of the lecture changed it to “Bangla’s Global Future.” He seemed displeased by this, but understands it, since Bangladeshis refer to their language as Bangla, as if it was a different from Bengali, which they would consider people in Kolkata and East Bengal speaking.

Radice says he resists calling Bengali as “Bangla”. His reasoning was well said. When speaking in any language, you always say the names of other languages in the language you are speaking, not in the way the other language calls itself. Thus when speaking in English, one says “French” and “Spanish”, not “Francais” or “Espanol”. When talking in Bengali, one refers to English as “Ingreji”. However, Bengali seems to be resisting this norm. Why should one make the exception for Bengali and call it “Bangla” when we don’t do that for any other language? He ultimately resisted going on about it, no reason to keep harping on it he said. He has no objection to it being called “Bangla”, but he said he would try to say that throughout his lecture, but to excuse him if he slipped back into saying Bengali (which he ultimately did by about the fifth time he had to mention the language’s name.) [On a personal note, I agree with him fully, and have tried to keep the norm of referring to the language as Bengali in blog as much as possible. However, when talking, I almost always refer to it as Bangla out of habit from hearing it said all the time.]

*He mentioned how Bengali was the most studied language in South Asian studies departments in England before World War II. After the war, however, when Britain’s worldwide empire was dissolved and Pakistan and India were founded with the national languages of Urdu and Hindi respectively, Bengali seemed to “miss the boat” and fall out of the international realm and was not perceived as important without a national language status. Although it is the fifth largest language in the world (5th to 7th depending on the source), Bengali was lacking posts in most Western universities, with as few as just two posts at one point. Its growth in the last few decades came after Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation in 1971, and Bengali was the national language.

*He gave five reasons why he thinks Bengali will grow as a studied language in the future, most pertaining to Bangladesh as a country emerging more and more into the international spotlight. They included:
-global warming: Bangladesh starts to go under the seas as they rise
-significant migration of Bengalis to other countries (especially when the seas rise)
-the increased importance of the growth of cities (Dhaka second fastest growing in the world)
-enhanced opportunities worldwide for leisure activities. By this he meant people using the internet to explore educational interests that they like, and thus Bengali could be more understood by curious individuals.
-a move from actual travel to virtual travel. Due to a desire to lower carbon emissions and a disappointment in the tourism industry, people will “travel” virtually more often. Thus Bangladesh, which is hard to reach, will be explored and accessed more frequently.

Two of these points seem to point to the internet as important for Bengali’s growth and two others point to natural disasters!
[see blog title for my opinion on #6]

*Lastly he covered what he thought should be done to help Bengali grow as an institutional language. This included a widely published and well written Bengali to English/English to Bengali dictionary, better Bengali teaching materials, increased literary scholarship and translations, and having educated Bangladeshis pursue Bengali as a university subject instead of the sciences.

I thought he took this talk as a real lecture, and not a speech. He definitely traveled his fair share of tangents, but listening to him talk was like being back in a classroom. Really enjoyed listening to him.

One aspect about events like this, and other performances, is they always seem to have television coverage. And when there is television coverage, there is one thing the cameras love to focus on: foreigners in the crowd. And many times, it is the shots of foreigners enjoying something Bangladeshi that makes the newscast. Common thought seems to feel that if a foreigner came to hear a talk, watch a play, or listen to a musical performance it affirms the importance of the event (for the same reasons, many billboards here feature foreigners modeling a product.)
To get these shots of the foreigners the cameramen aren’t bashful. They walk right in front and aim the camera right at you, a big bright light sometimes aimed at your face. Right in the middle of the performance! This goes on the entire time, I had the camera pointed my way six times during the one hour lecture. And if they’re not aiming the camera at the foreigners, the cameramen love to be right up in front of the speaker filming the audience or the speake, many times obscuring the view of the speaker, or just being generally distracting.
Well sure enough, tonight I got a text from my friend who saw me on the evening news, as the foreigner who was watching the lecture. (pics: cameramen during the lecture obscuring the crowds view of Dr. Radice by standing directly in front of him, cameraman aiming a camera at me while I listen to the lecture)

After, all the teachers and students of my language had the chance to have a private discussion with Dr. Radice. It was hear more of what he had to say, and field questions from students who use his book every day. He had interesting answers for almost all our questions. My favorite part was hearing his reasons to include or exclude different things from our text. (pic: AIBS teachers and students with Dr. Radice after his lecture [myself, Rafat, Erin, Farrah, Laurel, Santa, Jen, Megan, Shakil])

On the way home from the bus stand tonight I stopped by a store which I saw had pipes and the like. Asked them if they had materials that I could use to repair my stove’s gas leak. Said they could come with me to check it out and repair. I asked how much and the price didn’t seem too much. One came back with me to my home, and he checked out the pipe connection. Tried to reconnect it and finally decided I’d need new parts, included in the repair price. I didn’t mind, he left to go back to the store, got some parts and another repairman, and together they fixed it. Checked it out, no more flames bursting out! I feel safe again.

But not for long! When we first walked in this evening I saw ants all over the floors. Hundreds, going every which way. I have no clue why they were inside, couldn’t find the source. I tried sweeping them up and stomping on the swept up pile, but there were still so many. Finally I went and bought bug killing spray, and then did the same process of sweeping but sprayed the pile instead of stomping. Ants were all dead quickly. Swept them all up and threw them out. Had a few more random ones, but nothing a quick stomp couldn’t solve. Still not sure what attracted them all.

Lastly want to mention my friends’ blog. Jen and Ben Lamm’s blog has been posted to my blogroll. Jen is a fellow Fulbright here and Ben is her husband who is along for the ride. Just found out about their blog this week when I saw them, and I’ve found it very enjoyable.

Week 13: Are you a soccer, cricket, or museum kind of guy?

13^th-1st in Dhaka 11/28

Today was museum day. Both classes took a trip to the Liberation War Museum and the National Museum.
The Liberation Museum was very powerful. It goes through an incredible amount of detail describing what led up to the war in 1971, and then even more information about what happened during the war, including personal stories. They’ve collected tons of documents, photos, and objects from the war period, and aim to describe every painful detail.
The museum showed a 10 minute long film while we there, so we went in the theater to watch. It was very engaging, and showed excellent footage, showing the mostly foreign audience views of the war they were likely largely unfamiliar with.
The displays were both in Bengali and English. Sometimes I saw that the Bengali description was a few times longer than the English, but I was okay with it. Even with that, it still took me two hours to go through the 2-story museum which wasn’t much bigger than a house. There was just so much to read, absorb, and understand. For someone who knows only a handful of dates and names, it’s a bit difficult to grasp it all. For someone who knows nothing at all, this museum would be very overwhelming, not just in the volume of information, but also in the emotion behind it all.
Seeing and reading about some of the things that Pakistan did to the Bangladeshis when they were still in control made me tear at points. For me, and others, the worst event was what occurred two nights before Pakistan surrendered. They decided before they left they should kill all of Bangladesh's top doctors, educators, scientists, and philosophers. In the middle of the night they went to their homes, took them away, and murdered hundreds of them. Then left Bangladesh two days later. There was no strategic purpose to this; they knew they were surrendering soon, so to do just one more bit of damage before departing, they did this.
What’s incredible to me is that people here still remember the horrors of that war.
Three million people were killed in genocide then. People have mothers who were raped during the war. It’s incredible. I can't imagine living in the US thirty years after the civil war for example. To know of the horrors which happened on your land just such a short time ago...(pics: displays at Liberation War Museum, Erin/Santa at lunch between museums)

The National Museum is exactly the opposite of the Liberation War Museum. It’s several stories tall and looks like a museum; a large imposing structure with beautiful grounds. And inside, it is full of, well, very little information compared to the size of the building. The top floor has some reproduction of paintings from elsewhere in the world, a room of international dolls (the US dolls were represented by two Barbies and a doll that was obviously a gift shop toy purchased in New Orleans (the words New Orleans were on the doll’s dress,) and some other raggedy gift-shop like doll.)
Downstairs there were floors with Bangladeshi art, historical items, clothing, musical instruments….just a collection of everything a national museum should have about its respective country. Downstairs there were more scientific displays about Bangladesh’s geological history and agricultural history. Also displays on cultural life.

Went to Megan’s in the evening and we listened to the first 12 tracks of the Radiohead 01 and 10 mix that I’ve mentioned before. So, I did my senior English thesis on OK Computer, a bit of a concept album, and compared it to Catcher in the Rye. I remember when I was analyzing the album that many times I felt stuff was happening between songs that wasn’t being explained. For example, between Exit Music and Letdown, I felt something tragic must’ve happened and I could only postulate what. But when you stick Weird Fishes/Arpeggi in there, it’s like turning on a light and you see what happened to the two lovers in the songs who’ve escape. Or, how about Bodysnatchers right before Subterranean Homesick Alien! We only did the first half because it was getting late, but supposedly the last 10 songs is where the two albums really mesh. Will give my final opinion after it’s all over.

13^th-2nd in Dhaka 11/29

Starting to be sad that class is going to be over soon. Will miss the fun we have every day.

In class we learned to cook. Farah taught us how to make pulao and chicken gorma. Everything has a lot of fat, I’ll tell you that. But also a variety of spices: mostly cardamom and cinnamon. We put that in both dishes. It took 2 hours to cook it all. It was fun to learn everything, and see how some of my two favorite dishes are cooked. Erin wrote down what we were doing step by step, so many ingredients. Ultimately, I’ll copy them down from her, but these dishes look like it takes practice to get just right. If I make them in the US I’ll likely have to go Indian grocery store to buy all the ingredients.

I’m not sure if I ever officially said that food is eaten with your hand here. All food, well except soup. And it’s always the right hand…never never your left. Your left hand is reserved for bathroom business. I was once told, when you use the hand to eat, it’s supposed to make you feel closer to your food. You get to feel the textures, which they say makes things taste better. Yes, your hand gets very messy, but it’s not rude to lick your hand and fingers. Since the staple of all food is rice, it’s important to understand how to eat it correctly. You push your rice grains together, mushing them into a ball almost, then pick up the ball with your four fingers, and bring it up to your mouth, then push it into your mouth using the thumb. Because your left hand isn’t being used for eating, you can use it to grasp your water glass and drink. However, I’ve noticed that many folks here don’t drink a sip until the meal is over, then they drink the whole thing in one gulp.
Anyway, because you eat with your hand, you want to make sure it’s clean before you eat with it. So that’s why all restaurants have several sinks right in the restaurant, and you wash your hands after you order. And then, since your hand is all messy and greasy, you wash it at the same sinks afterwards. In homes, sometimes there is a sink right in the dining room for washing.

In the evening I went to Nafisa’s aunts house for dinner. Talked with her uncle and his friends for the beginning. One guy was in from Florida and he works for the Florida DOT, so we talked about one project he is working on, the new Orlando beltway.
Hung out with Ishraq for dinner. Dinner was delicious as usual. They had a lot of company over. After dinner had a conversation with one of their sons there. A 9 year old boy who was proud to show me he could speak English. So we had a conversation, him speaking English and myself speaking Bengali.

13^th-3rd in Dhaka 11/30

Went to Saquib’s house today. Was a great time.
I waited for Farhan at the bus stand since I got there when he told me to meet him but he arrived 30 minutes late. While I waited I talked to two of the bus ticket guys sitting at their tables under their umbrellas. They asked what I was doing, how I know Bengali, the typical questions. I asked them how long they sit there every day, what time they arrive. 8 hours a day, 7 days a week they work these counters. I think it’s a fun job. All this action around you, ever few minutes a mad rush for tickets. Friends come to hang out with you and talk. In fact, conversations always seem to spring up at these ticket counters.
Farhan arrived and we took the bus to Uttara.

We chilled in Saquib’s room for most of the day. Looked at pictures, listened to music, and watched music videos. Opu and Ayon showed up after about an hour separately, it was the 5 of us all day. Arm wrestled, listened to music. Sometime after a delicious lunch served my Saquib’s mom, we went up to the roof, cricket ball and bat in hand! (pics: Farhan/Ayon arm wrestling, Saquib taking a photo of Farhan/Opu arm wrestling, Ayon sporting Saquib's hat, Saquib/Opu)

On the roof we played cricket. It was a lot of fun. For the first time I got to bowl and bat. Ayon taught me the basic points of each. We switched off who was bowling, batting, and fielding in a cycle. We had to bowl and bat softly since we didn’t want the ball going off the edge of the roof and falling seven stories to the ground. Well, one of my bowls was maybe too hard, and Opu’s hit too hard as well, and the ball went over the side into the grassy area 7 stories below next to the apartment building. Three of us went downstairs and had to get some kid to hop the fence for us to get our ball back. (pics: our playing area with Saquib/Farhan/Opu, Opu hitting a ball bowled by Ayon, Ayon batting, oooooopsssss ball is now 7 stories down, myself batting, Ayon giving me pointers on batting, myself hitting a ball bowled by Farhan)

Later we climbed above the elevator shaft building to get an even better view. Uttara is quite impressive. 5-8 story apartment buildings as far as the eye can see. And it’s growing! It’s the main suburb of Dhaka. People are migrating out here at a good rate. In fact, just from the roof of Saquib’s apartment building, a 360 degree turn will allow you to spot over 50 new apartment buildings nearby. The growth is incredible. Its places like Uttara that is causing Dhaka is growing as fast as it is. (pics: how many new apartments being built can you spot in Uttara?, Saquib/Farhan on Saquib's roof in Uttara, Opu/Ayon, Opu/Ayon/me/Farhan posing)

I took a bus to Dhanmondi where I was meeting Nafisa and Khalid for a late Thanksgiving dinner at Khalid’s grandmothers house. Lot of people I knew there, Elizabeth and her Australian roommate, Naira’s and Khalid’s friends Nadia and Samia.
Desert was pretty delicious. They made a pumpkin “cake” and were worried about the results. A delicious chocolate cake, the kind that makes you want to get a drink afterward…milk would be best, but even a coke or water will do. Yum. (pic: Nafisa/Khalid cutting the pumpkin "cake")

13^th-4th in Dhaka 12/1

I went running, longest yet. Measured out that Baridhara is roughly 1000 meters long for running, and about ¼ mile wide. My old runs were about 2 miles, and the run I did today was about 2.75

How do you count? Just with you fingers? Well the Bangladeshi way is much more effective. I’d seen it for a few weeks, but I’d never thought twice about what was happening. But it was Megan who finally pointed it out to me. Bangladeshis use the lines on their fingers to count. Look at your hand, on each finger there are 3 pronounced lines, even on your thumb…look close! Then, if you add your fingertip, each finger has 4 points to count. Bangladeshis count this way, tapping their thumb along each line and then on the finger tip…and lastly use their index finger to count the thumb. In this way, you can get up to 20 on just one hand! 40 using both hands! It’s quadrupling your hand counting capacity! Pretty neat. Try it out, maybe you’ll get converted.

13^th-5th in Dhaka 12/2

I headed out to find Guide Tours to book my parents and my trip to the Sundarbans in March. Finding the office was a bit of an issue. Sat down with them and received trip options that I’ll explore and choose for my parents and myself. It’ll be a 4-day 3-night trip, likely at the end of their stay due to the timing of things.
Left, and went across the circle to check out if I could get the strap on my hat shortened…my favorite cap from H&M has a real long strap, and I thought it looked silly. And since they say you can get anything and everything done on the streets here, I was searching out someone to cut it and resew it. Found a guy with a sewing machine on the streetside, in the back of bazaar, asked him. He did, and I gave him Tk 20. We chatted about his son and my studies while he worked. Some other guy came over during and also talked with us.
Next went to find a badminton racket. Checked three stores, two sport specific stores and one shop in the bazaar. After asking about prices and the like finally decided on a racket in my price range. Also but a shuttlecock. I bought a low-to-mid range racket so if it gets stolen I won’t be sad. And at least its not cheap and break in the first game.

After dinner went to Gulshan Park to play badminton. It’s been a few months, so my lack of skill to those I was playing with really showed. I got to play 4 games, the first 2 with a guy who asked me if it was my first time every playing L Played the other 2 games with folks who seemed to be of lesser skill level, the category I fit into. I only played co-ed intramurals with Kristen in college and took badminton as a course sophomore year.

I like that pickup games just happen at local parks, every night, for a few hours. They only play in the winter because it’s cooler out unlike the hot hot summer. But they’ll play all winter. I’m looking forward to doing this most nights. Talked to a few people there, but was nervous to say the least. My skill isn’t as good, in badminton or in Bengali, so I’m sure I look a bit foolish. I’ll try my best to keep my head up.

13^th-6th in Dhaka 12/3

Headed down to Bangabandhu national stadium. A big soccer match today! Mohammedan vs. Abahani, the two best teams in the country. It was a best-of-3 series, with proceeds benefiting the Sidr victims. This was game 1. Apparently whenever the two teams play, it is always very heated, so even though these were Friendly matches, they aren’t necessarily friendly. Fans or players. A bit of history on what makes these teams such big rivals, as explained to me by Shakil:
Sheikh Mujib Rahman’s (the leader of the Liberation Movement in Bangladesh in 1971) eldest son started Abahani. Because the Awami League political party rose out of this family, leading eventually to Sheikh Hasina, recent president of Bangladesh and now in jail, this team is frequently supported by those who are in the Awami League.
Mohammedan was first organized by the royal family of Dhaka who lived in Ahsan Manzil in Old Dhaka. It was started in the 1930s and in modern times has received support from those in the government of Bangladesh, mainly because the Bangladesh National Party has been in power, and they are rivals of the Awami League. In fact, those who don’t like the Awami League support Mohammedan, plain and simple. Much of this team’s fan base is in Old Dhaka, because the ties the royal family had with that part of the city.

Abahani has its own practice field in Dhanmondi, while Mohammedan practices on either some of the Army’s fields, or the police’s fields.
Abahani’s colors are light blue and yellow and Mohammedan is black and white.
Because Ayon supported Abahani, I decided I would too, but by the end of the game, I was against Mohammedan for valid reasons.

The game resulted in a tie. Many scoring chances throughout the game, but nothing materialized. The action got hotter throughout the game. With about 10 minutes left, a fight broke out in the midfield. And the captain of Abahani (also the captain of the Bangladesh national team) and one of the best defensemen of Mohammedan were ejected. They both left the stadium to much riled yells from both sides of the crowd. The crowd, just like at concerts when they don’t like a band, started yelling “boo-wah, boo-wah!” (pic: the fight which got the two players ejected)

The crowd was definitely heated toward each other, even in the more expensive seating section in which Ayon and I were sitting. At one point, the Abahani goalkeeper made a miraculous save, and one guy supporting that side next to us stood up and gave a yelp of joy, shaking his arms in the air. Some guy 5 seats over, supporting Mohammedan, immediately stood up and started barking at the Abahani fan, “Sit down, sit down, shut up!!”…very emotional on both sides. And this wasn’t even that crazy of a match apparently! (pic: guy on far right was the Abahani supporter and four guys over is the Mohammedan supporter during a heated point in the match)

What made me decide to dislike Mohammedan was how they treated the end of the game. After the two squads tied, Abahani quickly came back to wait on the field for the expected shoot-out. However, Mohammedan went to their bench and started collecting their things. No one knew what was happening. Then Mohammedan began to walk off the field! Mayhem! Crowd is booing/cheering, going crazy. Abahani is just standing there wondering what is going on. Then, one of the VIPs who was sitting near us in a special booth goes down to the field. Ayon pointed out to me earlier this man was one of the great players in Bangladesh history, now much older. He used to play for Mohammedan. He goes down and talks the players back into doing the shootout. Meanwhile people all over the field are yelling at each other. The crowd is cheering going wild and seem to be on the verge of fighting. I was pretty turned off by Mohammedan’s action. What would stop you from playing a shootout for CHARITY?! Anyway, they ended up winning the shootout…dang, I wanted Abahani to win. (pics: Abahani waits midfield for a shootout while Mohammedan walks off, ex-Bangladeshi soccer star convincing his former team to do the shootout, Mohammedan wins the shootout they didn't even want to play)

The food during the game was interesting. There weren’t any official stadium food vendors. All food vendors were from the street who bought a ticket to come into the stands, and then sold their food. Peanuts, tea, potato chips, water, and soda were some of the options. As well you could buy a crushed chick pea, tomato, and onion with spices mixture which is real popular. We bought some peanuts, tea, and the chick pea stuff. Prices weren’t any higher than they would be on the street, except for the tea guy, who blamed it on having to buy a ticket to the game. (pics: Ayon with his tea, nuts wrapped in old Bangladeshi newspaper, food hawker who had to buy a ticket to sell his food, the popular snack he sells)

From the stadium you can see the National Mosque. The game lasted through two azans, so it was neat to hear the azan singing while the game was happening. About 50 fans gathered near the north end of the stadium and did their prayers in the stands during the game. (pic: white building outside stadium is the National Mosque)

The Boy Scouts were helping out at the game. They helped collect tickets and during the game they were the ballboys. Also carried a banner when the teams were brought out. They had similar uniforms and some of the same patches as those in the US. I got some pictures with some of them after the game. We talked about scouting in our own countries for only a short time, but enough to exchange some ideas. Since we shook with our right hand, I asked them why they don’t shake with their left, as this is supposed to be the international scout handshake. Well they explained to Ayon and me that Bangladeshi scouts used to shake with their left hand, like all scouts in the world, but when Ziaur Rahman was President of Bangladesh, he gave a decree that all Bangladeshis should shake with their right hand, and thus the scouts followed suit, a show of loyalty to the then young nation. I also asked where they meet, and with the help of Ayon’s translation, we understood that there are two branches of scouting here, the educational branch and the non-educational branch, the latter which he was part of. Not exactly sure what that meant, but I’ll guess and say it means certain troops are associated with schools, while he, at 21, is not in school anymore, and its only a club. I think what he does is similar to the US’s Venture Scouts. Ayon told me that the common activities Boy Scouts are known for in Bangladesh is camping and service projects. Just like American scouts! Was very excited to meet them, and I hope vice versa. (pics: Boy Scouts with a banner midfield before the game, a Boy Scout ballboy, Bangladeshi Boy Scouts, and a shot with me)

After the game, I bought a Bangladeshi flag on the street and a headband for Ayon and myself for next time we go to a match. Victory Day is coming up, so flags are being sold all over now.

Day ended poorly. Sadly. I accidentally put a lock on my phone, and don’t have the code to unlock it. Spent a lot of time tonight trying to figure out what to do. Sujit tried taking it to the store to get it unlocked, and they couldn’t help. My friend Toma, who works at Aktel, my service provider, assured me online she could get it to work, so I’ll go by tomorrow.
Also got upset at badminton, I think I was being teased in Bengali for my lack of skill. Eh, that’s never fun.

13^th-7th in Dhaka 12/4

We cooked khichuri and three types of fish today in class. Our second cooking class in one week. Food was good again. We made a dessert this time called firnni. It requires to be stirred the entire time! So that was my job for about 15 minutes. All was delicious in the end.

Midway through, I had to go to the Aktel office to get my phone fixed. Toma met me there, and gave me all my codes, and helped me get the phone working again.

Went to Lavendar’s (grocery/everything store) upstairs where they have toys. Saw a really cool board game where you have to navigate the streets of Delhi, India in your taxis, collecting fares, avoiding traffic signals, and competing for things…I thought it was a real cool transportation related game! I’ll buy it at some point.

The use of bamboo here is quite impressive. Its strength is used in many applications, whether to construct carts to pull heavy machinery around or to make ladders for workers. But one of the most impressive uses is to support the formwork for setting concrete. As buildings go up floor by floor, the bamboo takes the load of the wet concrete. Also, on this note, many buildings are occupied even while being constructed. Many buildings are occupied in the lower levels since they have been completed, and as the owner’s get more money, they complete the building floor by floor. So it’s common to see a several story apartment building, with drying clothes hanging out windows, and the top floor is a forest of bamboo posts holding up the next floor of setting concrete. (pic: bamboo supporting new concrete)