Rajshahi…

Rajshashi is a university town on the east bank of the Padma River, that’s the mighty Ganges to you and me, and Ganga to the Indians. It’s verging on cosmopolitan by Bangladeshi standards, what with all them students and their likes, but I’m still painfully exotic. I spent the afternoon strolling along the banks of the Ganges, which is normally about 2.5 km wide at this point but now it’s the dry season most of the riverbed is exposed and it’s reduced to a few gently flowing streams. The nut hawkers were busy roasting their nuts over sand, young couples were mischievously holding hands and most of us were enjoying the gentle breeze as the sun was starting to set over the Indian plains. Entertainment was provided in the form of a domestic dispute involving a man in his underpants wildly flailing his arms and his wife giving him a good thrashing with her shawl, the assembled crowd only to eager to give their devious input.

At the train station (a truly wonderful modern building by the way) I fumbled my way through buying a ticket to Dhaka and as usual made several acquaintances in the process, one of whom turned out to be a rather kind detective called Rokon (there’s an alarming trend here with the security forces) – a good chat and several cups of tea later I was on a rickshaw heading back to his place to meet his wife and child and eat a delicious supper – as one does after dark with random strangers you meet at the train station. It was indeed a true privilege to be invited to a Bangladeshi home and to spend some time with genuinely nice people.