Travel
A Tale of Two Cities
The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. Photo courtesy: Azizul Jalil
What has Copenhagen in Denmark and Lund in Sweden in common? Nothing much, except that they are close to each other and during our recent Scandinavian trip in the autumn of 2013, we happened to visit both of them. Copenhagen is an ancient city- the capital of Denmark adjoining the North Sea, and Lund, a small and medieval university town, is in the Southern part of Sweden. There is fast communication by train between Copenhagen and Lund, a comfortable journey of forty-five minutes. There was no passport or security check between the two countries and the same train took us from Denmark to Sweden- only the staff of one country, all English speaking, handed over their responsibilities at the frontier station to the staff of the other country. Two-thirds of the Railway is owned by Sweden and one-third by Denmark.
While we went to Copenhagen to see its interesting places, an equally important purpose of the trip was to visit Lund to meet Tayeb Husain, a regular reader in the internet of my essays in the Bangladeshi newspapers and magazines. In fact, it was he who had prepared a detailed programme of our Copenhagen and Lund visits and sent it to Washington, which we happily followed. He had also cordially invited me and my wife to go on a day trip to Lund to be shown around in that beautiful small town and accept his hospitality.
Tayeb, a retired businessman who had studied in the Lund University, has been living there for the last thirty years. His wife, Kakali, had studied in Dhaka University and is currently completing her thesis on Shakespeare's performance (plays and movies) for submission later this year at the Tokyo University where she is enrolled as a PhD candidate. We had never met either of them. However, his warm emails sent to Washington and numerous telephone calls after arrival in our Copenhagen hotel enquiring about our welfare impressed us enough to devote a substantial portion of our short visit to see him in his own surroundings in Lund.
On the first day in Copenhagen, we went on a bus ride to see the city by Step on, Step off, a tour company under Pakistani ownership. The operators were helpful to us- since we had joined the tour in the late-afternoon, they allowed us to use the same ticket the whole of next day. We were taken a round the famous museums, the Royal Palace and the Carlsburg Brewery and other places of interest. The famous Little Mermaid at the canal side, an icon of the Copenhagen landscape, had turned 100 this year. We were able to see it during both our bus and boat tours of the city. The bronze statue by sculptor Edward Eriksen was originally erected on a pile of boulders in the Copenhagen Harbour in 1913. It was in honour of ballerina Ellen Price who had danced the title role in an adaptation of native son Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” who traded her voice for legs because she wanted a human soul. One million tourists visit her every year. Even the Chinese are in love with her. Generations of Chinese have grown up with the tale of the Little Mermaid which was translated into Mandarin in 1918. She was loaned for the World EXPO in Shanghai in 2010. The act had the symbolism of a small country marrying their beautiful daughter to a superpower. Next year a $13 million theme park based on the fairytale will be opened there.
The next day was a sunny day when we took an interesting and comfortable boat trip on the canal. We saw the Royal Palace, the Round Tower, and the breathtaking black granite and glass extension to the Royal Library in 1999 called The Black Diamond and other public and private buildings. We later briefly saw the Tivoli, which is one of the world's oldest amusement parks. We had dinner at a nice Bosnian Restaurant at its side and the next day, dined at an Indian restaurant-the Taj, all fairly close to our hotel. We met a Colombian couple during the bus tour who wondered why we were planning next month to visit Bogota and Cartegena in Colombia. They live in Bogota and advised us to reconsider the visit in view of serious security concerns there. On return, we changed our next travel plan from Colombia to Peru and Machu Picchu, partly due to this chance conversation. Copenhagen, a relatively small city with a one square-mile city centre, was a walk-able city with wide footpaths. The streets were full of pedestrians and bicycles, which are a popular mode of transport. Most of the tourist attractions, including the Tivoli Gardens, Museums and the Central Railway Station were within the city centre. We walked a lot, visiting the department stores and the pedestrians-only streets, which were full of shops and restaurants selling all kinds of goods from souvenirs to fancy items. We also visited the museum of the Guinness Book of World Records there, which my grandchildren would have appreciated more.
Scene of Copenhagen from our boat. Photo: Azizul Jalil
The famous saying "probashe Bangalee sajjan" had come true during our earlier travels to Lake Como, Venice and some other places on this earth but the warmth, sincerity, hospitality and the care that Tayeb and his wife, Kakali showered on us during our visit to them in Lund for a day more than justified Sanjib Chandra's perceptive observation made a century ago. Tayeb tried his best to ensure that we had an instructive and enjoyable time while in Lund. Even for Copenhagen, he had arranged with a Danish friend and a Bangladeshi student of his to help us out in the event we encountered any trouble there. Remembering that beyond exchanging infrequent emails concerning my writings in Dhaka papers, we did not know each other at all, all these were unbelievable. We were a little concerned when we arrived at the Lund railway station as to how we would recognise each other, not ever having met before. But there he was on time, warmly greeting us without saying, “Mr. and Mrs. Jalil, I suppose!” but commenting that we were exactly what he had imagined us to be.
Tayeb had written to me in advance in Washington about the culinary skills of his wife, including her ability to cook Swedish, Japanese, Thai, Chinese and of course Bengali/Indian dishes, enquiring what type of food we would like to have for lunch at their house. This kind gesture had completely floored us but we were overwhelmed when we were served a five-course, hot lunch of our choice. We realised how fortunate we were in being feted with the most delicious food - all freshly cooked with the best of ingredients with tender loving care.
It was past three in the afternoon and the hosts, who had already prepared the guest beds for us, suggested that we take a mid-day siesta before going around sightseeing in their car in the small town. No doubt they had planned it considering our advanced years. We thanked them but declined the offer, deeply appreciating their thoughtfulness.
We were then taken out on a tour of the city in their car. It is a charming city that combines ancient with the modern. It being a university town, every third resident in Lund was a university student. We saw the main university buildings and the students union and parts of the old and new town. It was green everywhere and the streets were lined with decorative trees. There was little traffic even during the rush hour. At a mall when we were having coffee, Kakali, hearing from my wife that we regularly go to Dhaka with a rest stop in a European city, invited us to stay with them next time for a few days. We were quite touched and said we would lovingly keep the invitation in our mind. When they came to the railway station in the evening to say goodbye to us, we were indeed sorry to leave behind our new friends, with whom we do intend to keep in touch. A visit to a foreign land, with all its other charms, could not possibly compete with the pleasant company of a like-minded Bangladeshi couple and the free and congenial conversation in the mother tongue on many matters of common interest that we had.
Truly and I repeat, probashe Bangalee sajjan.
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