A festival of Kites, Lights and Fireworks!
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Posted:Feb 3, 2018 9:04 am
Last Updated:Feb 20, 2018 7:00 pm 13698 Views
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Shakrain Festival
When writing something about ‘Shakrain Festival’ celebrated annually by the residents living in a certain part of the city of Dhaka, I feel like traveling back to my boyhood days when I was simply addicted to flying Kites like my friends during the two months of winter from the rooftop of our two storied building located at my home town which is 76 miles or 123 kilometers (Crow Fly) away from Dhaka.
But “Shakrain Festival” though relates to kite flying; it is some what different than the normal thing and is celebrated mostly by the inhabitants of the oldest part of the city of Dhaka.
It is a day of flying kites, mostly in the afternoon by the , Boys and girls, young men and women, and sometimes joined by grown ups too. In the evening, fireworks lights up the sky of the southern part of Dhaka city (old Dhaka) followed by shows of manipulating fire by the Flame –Eaters who gathers on the roof tops of houses to show their skills!
The festival is an annual celebration held with much fun and festivities on the last day of the Bengali month of “Poush” (9th month of Bengali Calendar and January 14 or 15 of Gregorian calendar) in old Dhaka--the congested part of my city!
It has become now an important yearly cultural event celebrated by all the inhabitants of old Dhaka irrespective of faiths they practice.
The festival day is also known as “Poush Sangkranti”. We as well as the people of India and Nepal call the day as “Makar Sangkranti”.
The tropic of Capricorn is known as “Makar” in this part of the world.
It may also be mentioned here that the word “Sangkranti” denotes movement of the sun from one zodiac signs to another.
It is believed that on this day, the sun moves towards its southward journey at the Tropic of Capricorn and starts moving towards the Tropic of Cancer.
The festival is significant to the Dhakaites as the day marks a major change in the solar system! It is believed that day and night on this day is equally long! After “Sangkranti”, the days become longer than the nights. In other words nights become shorter.
So what happened in oldest part of Dhaka on this particular day of the year 2018?
As mentioned somewhere in the foregoing, aside from kite flying by young and old, boys and girls, and men and women during the day but mostly during afternoon, the evening and night of the Shakrain day, ‘colourful floating paper lanterns (fanoosh), fire breathers and thousands of fireworks from old Dhaka rooftop enchanted the people of all ages.
Also there were laser lightings, music, and dance parties arranged by the young people of the community’.
My readers are invited to view ten photos of current year’s “Shakrain Festival” posted below for getting an idea about the festival which happens to be a part of our culture too!
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Photo Credits: The Daily Star,Dhaka Tribune , bdnews24.com
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Moving between different points in time!
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Posted:Jan 30, 2018 8:31 am
Last Updated:Sep 5, 2023 5:04 am 13475 Views
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Traveling backwards in time!
Time travel happens to be a fascinating concept. Though it may happen due to unavoidable reason beyond our knowledge initially because we usually don’t perhaps take note of such time travels until some one tells us the exact time and date on arrival to our destination by air!
A few days back, I was reading a news story about such a time travel that originated from Auckland, New Zealand.
The flight was originally schedule to take off from Auckland on December 31st night but a ten minute delay in departure made it to take off on 1st January 2018 and when it landed in Honolulu 8 hours later, the date was still December 31, 2017 though the travelers were flying in a Plane that was not a Time Machine!
This was not only flight that time-traveled from 2018 to 2017.
Six other flights from Taipei took off in 2018 and landed in 2017 when they arrived in North America.
Fascinating! Isn’t it?
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The Vicious Circle!
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Posted:Jan 28, 2018 6:05 am
Last Updated:Jan 14, 2023 5:45 am 13453 Views
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The song that made me sad!
" In The Ghetto"
As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago morning '
A poor baby is born
In the ghetto
And his mama cries
'Cause if there's one thing that she don't need
It's another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto
People, don't you understand
The needs a helping hand
Or he' ll grow to be an angry young man someday
Take a look at you and me,
Are we too blind to see?
Do we simply turn our heads and look the other way?
Well, the world turns
And a hungry little boy with a runny nose
Plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto
And his hunger burns
So he starts to roam the streets at night
And he learns how to steal, and he learns how to fight
In the ghetto
Then one night in desperation
The young man breaks away
He buys a gun,
Steals a car,
Tries to run,
But he don't get far
And his mama cries
As a crowd gathers ' around an angry young man
Face down on the street with a gun in his hand
In the ghetto
And as her young man dies,
On a cold and gray Chicago morning '
Another baby is born
In the ghetto
And his mama cries
The song posted above is written by Scot “Mac” Davis and tells us about those who are born and grow up on the wrong side of the trucks keeping in mind the childhood that he spent in Lubbock, Texas.
As the slums or ghettos could be found in every large city of the world, Davis could have set the song way up any large city of the world where mornings look grey! The violent end of such angry men is predetermined not only in the ghettos of the city of Chicago but also in the slums of the city of Dhaka where I live.
Davis changed the title of the song from “The Vicious Circle” to “In the Ghetto” because according to him, he could not find anything to rhyme with ‘circle’. However, I feel that the song ends by pointing out a vicious circle that exists in every such ghetto of the world. The song, sang by Elvis Presley, became an instant hit soon after the album was released in 1969.
Maybe, many of my readers listened to the song many times like I did after the album was released in 1969 and may like to listen to it even now like me! The song makes me sad whenever I listen to it.
Davis entered the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 2006. At the ceremony, Davis explained as follows:
• " It's a simple matter of growing up with a little boy whose father worked with my father. He lived in a part of town that was a dirt-street ghetto. I grew up in Lubbock, Texas, and it was a ghetto in every sense of the word, but we did 't use that word back then. I was trying to come up with a song called ' The Vicious Circle,' how a is born, he has no father, and the same thing happens. The word ' Ghetto' became popular in the late '60s to describe the poor parts of town. A friend of mine, Freddy Weller, who used to play guitar for Paul Revere and the Raiders, showed me lick on the guitar one day. I went home and fiddled around with it, I wrote the song and called him up at 4 in the morning and sang it to him. He knew I'd wrote a hit with his lick, but that's the way it goes."
Hope, the readers of this blog of mine would like to listen to the song once again as it is now readily available on YouTube.
Photos are from Chicago and Dhaka.
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Down the memory lane and the Photos of Great Bengal Famine 1943
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Posted:Jan 12, 2018 4:48 am
Last Updated:Jul 4, 2022 8:57 am 12704 Views
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The town where I grew up and finished my graduation was not my birth place. I was born in the port city of Chittagong, in December 1939, nearly three months after Hitler attacked Poland that resulted the outbreak of World War II. Just to remind my readers that World War II began in the month of September 1939 when Britain and France declared war on Germany following Germany’s invasion of Poland.
Soon after Japan seized Burma in 1942 and bombed Chittagong and Calcutta, my father sent us to our ancestral village home in Barisal fearing that Chittagong would be under Japan’s control soon and also rice, which is the staple food of Bengalis, became a scarce commodity there. Because the then British Government bought up massive amounts of rice and hoarded it causing the great man made “Bengal Famine”. At least 3 million people died from starvation and malnutrition during this man made famine in 1943 that I witnessed as a . (See the black and white pictures).
The famine is also called “Churchill’s Secret War”. Churchill had worsened the starvation in Bengal by ordering a ship load of wheat sent from Australia for Bengalis by ordering the diversion of the ship elsewhere for British troops posted around the world!
“Dr. Gideon Poyla, an Australian biochemist, has called the Bengal famine a man made “holocaust”.
So it will not be wrong if anyone portraits me as a product of British India.
I did not came to live in my home town ‘Barisal’ until India was fragmented and divided and Burma was allowed to get detached from India by the then British Rulers. They left the Indian sub continent and Burma without bothering about the problems that were bound to crop up during the transition period and after that!
Unfortunately, a large number of people of divided sub-continent and Arakan State of Burma- are still suffering from the problems left unsolved by the British rulers!
Deaths and destruction followed soon after British left the sub continent divided and Arakan state detached from the sub-continent.
Millions of people of the sub continent suddenly found themselves as refugees due to partition of British India in to two independent countries!
The ethnic minority people of Arakan (Rakhine) State, known as Rohingyas, suddenly became Stateless and now being forced by the Military Junta of Burma to flee their homeland to save their lives!
An ethnic cleansing operation is now going on in modern Burma under the civilian leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The purpose of posting the paragraphs at above is not for denouncing the questionable actions of the then colonial rulers as history has already taken care of analyzing the consequences of leaving the sub continent fragmented and divided by the British.
Churchill will be always remembered as the person responsible for the man made famine of 1943 which caused death of three million people of undivided Bengal (now Bangladesh and Indian State of West Bengal).
My intention to post the above paragraphs are to show my readers some pictures of the Great Bengal Famine Of 1943 and one picture ( Pic #1) of my home town where I grew up after the partition of the British India and where my parents and my little brother are now resting in peace!
Needless to mention here that I can’t identify the city where I grew up when I occasionally go there to pray at the graves of my parents and stay overnight in our Barisal town house that still remains livable!
My home town is now a crowded modern mega city almost unrecognizable to me.
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Antiquities of Dacca
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Posted:Jan 11, 2018 4:31 am
Last Updated:Jan 14, 2018 1:18 am 12026 Views
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Four Great Paintings Depicting the Mughal Ruins of Dhaka
The appended four paintings are the works of famous British Artist Sir Charles D'Oyly (1781-1845} who was known to be one of those painters who experimented with the Indian Paintings.
A large number of his paintings depicts various subjects of 18th and 19th century undivided India.
He was born in India in 1781 and lived in Murshidabad with his parents before leaving for England along with the family in the year 1785.
His father, Baron Sir John Hedley D'Oyly, was the resident of the Company at the Court of Nawab Babar Ali of Murshidabad.
D’Oyly returned to India and worked as the Assistant to the Registrar in the court of Appeal in Calcutta in 1798.He was appointed as the ‘Keeper of the Records' in 1803 in the office of the Governor General.
He retired from the Company job serving lastly as the Senior Member of the Board of Customs, Salt, and Opium and of the Marine (1833).
The appended four paintings among some more were done by him while he worked as Collector of Dacca (now spelled as Dhaka, the city where I live).
He worked for the East India Company for 40 years before he left India for England in 1838.
He was conferred the Baronage after the death of his father and also received Knighthood.
Sir Charles D’Oyly died in 1845 while living in Italy leaving no male behind.
While in Dhaka, he concentrated especially on drawing the Mughal Ruins of Dhaka. His drawings were published in form of folios from London since 1823. The folios are known as Antiquities of Dacca. These four paintings are from the book "Antiquities of Dacca".
Details of the Paintings:
1. A view in Dacca with figures in front of a ruined temple. Oil on canvas, 51 x 70 cm, circa 1811. Artist: Charles D'Oyly. Provenance: Eyre & Greig, 1988. Private collection. Courtesy: Charles Greig
2. Mosque in the suburbs of Dacca. Oil on canvas, 60 x 89 cm, circa 1812. Artist: Charles D'Oyly. Provenance: Eyre & Greig, 1988. Private collection. Courtesy: Charles Greig
3. Great Kuttra, Dacca. Oil on canvas, 60 x 89 cm, circa 1811. Artist: Charles D'Oyly. Provenance: Eyre & Greig, 1988. Private collection. Courtesy: Charles Greig
4. A view in Dacca with mosque, figures and cattle. Oil on canvas, 25 x 33 cm, circa 1810. Artist: Charles D'Oyly. Provenance: Eyre & Greig, 1988. Private collection. Courtesy: Charles Greig
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Under the influence of a severe cold wave..........
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Posted:Jan 8, 2018 4:50 am
Last Updated:May 7, 2023 2:48 pm 12050 Views
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Global Warming, Polar Vortex, and Cold waves
The cold wave continues to disrupt life across my country. Though it is not like what the Americans and Canadians are enduring now yet the severe cold has paralyzed the life in the northern parts of Bangladesh!
The temperature here in my country has gone down to a record low in many places forcing the people to remain indoors!
The lowest temperature has been recorded to 2.6 degrees Celsius in Tetulia, located at the far north of Bangladesh. It is the lowest on record until now!
The weather office here considers temperatures from 4-6 degree Celsius to be a severe cold wave.
Such a severe cold wave has been sweeping across six divisions of Bangladesh since Jan 4 keeping people indoors.
People like us, who are living in Dhaka, are currently experiencing medium cold waves which are below 10 degrees Celsius.
Fog has become now a regular occurrence from midnight to morning but according to today’s weather bulletin, fog may linger into afternoon in many parts of my homeland.
According to Met office forecast, more cold wave for the Dhaka dwellers like me because the mercury would be dripping below 7 degrees Celsius tonight!
My readers may be interested to see what happens here in this land when cold waves sweeps across the country- especially in the early morning from the appended pictures. The pictures are mostly from the Northern part of Bangladesh.
Before I sign of, I may add that the scientists are of opinion that Polar vortex may cause extreme cold waves that my American readers are now experiencing! And it has proved President Trump’s recent tweet on Weather Pattern wrong.
They also say that Polar vortex would continue to happen more frequently in the coming days! If the forecast comes true then it would make our life more measurable here in this part of the world too.
Are the scientists correct? Could anyone help me to understand the situation? Does Polar Vortex has anything to do with Global Warming?
Meantime Happy Viewing: dear readers.
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11
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Lifestyle without Electricity!
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Posted:Jan 5, 2018 6:45 am
Last Updated:May 19, 2021 8:50 am 12212 Views
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Imagine life without electricity!
Could anyone living in a mega Western City or even in a village located in the remote part of a European country imagine life without electricity?
Perhaps, the answer would be in the negative. But there are millions of people in the world who live without electricity! These people live in most of the African countries and the numbers are rising. Just think about Nigeria- one of the world’s biggest oil exporters but 93m Nigerians depend on firewood and charcoal for heat and light!!
Even a few years back in my own country, Bangladesh, there were places where people were deprived of electricity for unavoidable reasons! The situation has now changed for better than last year. My country has installed over 3.5 m off-grid solar power system for the benefits of these villagers and the figure would set to double in next few years. “Electricity for all by 2021”, with this vision in mind our Government has taken many initiatives to ensure electricity for all within the targeted year!
Appended photos would tell the viewers all the stories about life without Electricity!
The last two pictures are from two remote villages of Bangladesh where solar power system has been installed recently and the remaining eight are from different villages located in Benin where people live without the benefits of electricity!
The photo #10 shows some villagers of a remote village of Bangladesh, chatting at night under a solar street lamp.
Happy Viewing, dear viewers!
Photos of Benin by Pascal Maitre
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16
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Good Bye 2017, Hello 2018
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Posted:Dec 30, 2017 10:02 pm
Last Updated:Dec 31, 2018 8:44 pm 12189 Views
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Good bye 2017
Thanks for the ride!
Happy new year to you all.
Let us think about tomorrow, the first day of the year 2018.
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Jingle Bells-2017
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Posted:Dec 27, 2017 1:36 am
Last Updated:Dec 31, 2018 8:44 pm 11584 Views
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Christmas Celebration in Dhaka.
The other day two of my SFF friends asked me while chatting in lobby about how Christmas is celebrated in this country of mine! I told them that we celebrate Christmas just like they do in their own countries. And then I thought to post, here on my blog page, some of the pictures taken during celebrating Christmas on Monday last in Dhaka, the city where I live now! The Christian community of the country had celebrated Christmas Day on Monday, December 25, 2017 as elsewhere across the world, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. were delighted to join a Christmas fair held in the city on the day this year(see the photos).
Photo Credits: Probir Das and Dipu Malakar
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On such a day can I tell her?
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Posted:Dec 9, 2017 9:07 pm
Last Updated:Nov 7, 2023 3:29 am 11914 Views
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The mail that was never sent to Tisha!
It is raining since morning--though not torrential but incessant--no respite! And this seems to be the time to come out of the labyrinth of memory! To tell her something not told before!
Here is the text of the unwritten and unsent mail posted for her to read and ponder!
And who else can say it better than my favorite poet?
"On such a day can I tell someone
In such a dark and dense downpour
On such a day, can I bare my soul
Amidst the rumbling roar of clouds,
this unceasing drizzle of rain,
this sun bereft deep duskiness
None other there be, to hear those words
In seclusion and solitude
Face to face be, the two of us
Heavy of heart in deep sorrow
Incessant tears streaking the skies
None other there be, as if it were.
Worldly matters, pretence they are
Deception, is the daily din
Gazing into each other’s eyes
Sipping sweet nectar from therein
One heart reaching out to another
All else fades into the dark
Offence is it, to anyone
Unburden my heart, if I can
In this deluge, once if I can,
Sit down in a quiet little nook
Few words if I say to the one
Matter does it, to anyone?
The wind speeds in desperation
Lightning flashes from time to time
Those words that have, in this lifetime
Still remained within, in my mind
Those are the words that I may tell
Today in this dark and dense downpour."
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