Chintito
JUST SO THAT YOU KNOW I WAS IN EUROPE
Dancing House, Prague.
My hiatus of the past twenty days was well spent in eleven cities of Europe, but it kept me away from my column a shade longer owing to the brew of anxiety and excitement that precedes any tour to new places and meeting with new people. An apology at this point would suggest my assumption that my absence inconvenienced you, and I could be labelled a 'braggart'. My silence on the other hand would surely qualify me for the basket marked 'rude'. While neither is an honourable option, and a rude braggart is worse, if you have known me long enough, I take solace in believing that you will forgive.
Masjid at Cordova.
I am now pleasurably fatigued, the journey hovering in my jetlagged thoughts as a jumble of streets, plazas, and facades, not forgetting the aura of goulash, gyro and bacalhau; the sundry hotel rooms being my only aid to differentiate among the patches that is traversed by the privilege of Schengen.
Back home, you are confronted with a question as awkward as inquiring about one's anubhuti : which city did you like best? The query is popular because it comes easily, and finding an answer is just that much difficult.
Just beyond the Agora on a pebbled pedestrian street in Athens, Jahangir narrates his tale while peddling tit bit toys. Six years he has not been home. Local politics keeps the fate of his papers swinging on a pendulum. He has built a house in his hometown Madaripur and another at Narayanganj. He has managed to take his two brothers to Greece. Not many people would mind squatting in the sun and splattering a plastic tomato on the pavement that regains its shape, every time, if they could remit one lakh Taka home every month, two in high tourist season. Life sadly remains splattered. Jahangir also does four hours in a phone shop.
Gateway to Europe, Madrid.
Opera tickets at Vienna start at around 50 Euros and come with dinner at 250 or so. But that is not what is keeping Bangladeshis away from the city of Mozart, Freud and a single university (1365) that boasts of ten (yes, you heard me, ten) Nobel Laureates. The police here are extremely agile and vigilant, moving in superfast cars, which also explains streets free of vagabonds and beggars. It is an expensive city and a put-off for fortune-seeking illegal immigrants. Not a fan because the language is a barrier, and two persons discussing the weather while singing in high pitch is not my cup of tea, but I fortuitously enjoyed part of an opera projected live on a giant screen outside a theatre. It was the best 50 Euros I saved. Thank you.
Vasco da Gama mall, Lisbon.
Prague is enchanting because of the lush green bushy gardens that surprise you among a rather vague attempt to marry thousand-yearold edifices with innovative constructions. But, it seemed a city shy of an entire generation, as its National Museum– Národní– remains shut from 2011 and is expected to open doors in 2015. In a city where you hardly see workers from this part of the world, their museum risks becoming a museum due to the long hibernation. In another bizarre exhibition not far away, your gleeful urgency to find some action at the 'dancing house' is in for a rude shock. There stands before you a five- or six-storied cylinder punctuated with windows. That is supposed to be the gentleman, and the glass house standing next to it (you are right) is the opposite partner. Don't keep on staring because they will never start dancing.
It is all Gaudi at Barcelona, the Catalan architect's Casa Mila being more befitting to his bendy reputation than the more famous under-repair SagradaFamilia (church), both seen from the outside. But, yes, his Park Güell carved out of ceramic tiles and coarse patches of concrete is reminiscent of old city walls left unattended, and yet so fresh. You will find Bangladeshi youths livening up the pedestrian boulevard of Ramblas with the flares that they peddle.
The same is the scene at Madrid, which is vibrant round the clock at their centrepiece plaza Sol. Flares going up are predictably receivedat ground by youths from Bajitpur or Munshiganj. They miss home and so they offer us their toys at half their price.
Gateway to Europe, Madrid.
Barcelona Cathedral
The Muslim domination in southern Spain is heralded by the great double-arch masjid at Cordova, covering 240,000 square feet, built from 784 to 987AD. Since the 16th century the masjid has been desecrated by a Gothic church built within. And today Muslims are constantly reminded by vigilant guards not to offer salaat even in the remaining sprawling, most beautifully proportioned masjid area. Bangalees are hard to beat when it comes to defying rules, and so the Bangalee determined to offer even two rakats of namaaz does so standing, sitting , walking, all by ishaara. The guards were watching, but were none the wiser.
Lisbon is a big success story for Bangladeshi migrants. The Portuguese capital has beggar women. But you will Bangladeshis working with pride. Almost any souvenir shop at Rosio plaza is owned by Bangladeshi. It is so heartening to talk to a successfulbusinessperson in Bangla. Price are slashed, soft drinks are offered, they want to be hospitable to their country people. Theirstanding among the Lisboans is A-plus.
Back at Shah Jalal, I find a lady, who has travelled on my flight, tugging a carry-on and inching alongside me, although she was behind me as we waited for immigration clearance. She lives in Canada and was the only one outside the queue. I wanted to ask her whether she would do this back in her north America, but who wants to quarrel with a woman in Bangla at Dhaka at five in the morning?
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