Perceptions
Stay in Bangladesh!
Photo: Prabir Das
I stay in Bangladesh because I find a liberation here I find nowhere else. Freedom must be about more than just comfort, more than just luxury, more than just a late night party with drinks and smokes. It must be about more than just a tag or a name, or a need to build a home.
Photo: Prabir Das
It must be beyond cheese dipped nacho chips and caramel flavoured popcorn bought to complement a 3D movie screening. It must be about more than just a graduation party in heels. There must be more to life than driving to and from college, staying in an air conditioned home and finding refreshment in overrated amusement parks.
I can't find freedom in any of the above things. I can't find freedom in a gentrified, artificial world made of glass doors and windows and large malls. I can't find acceptance and a voice in them.
The life I've seen abroad is shallow; it builds gaping holes in our consciences, and blinds us from things that make us human, because there is no possible way that we can break free from the illusions of a utopia and care about the world by doing more than just liking updates on Facebook or watching news.
I've lived in the Arab World but not felt the Arab Spring's energy pierce through my skin - because comfort numbs our emotions and power to think. The world that tempts many of us so much keeps us shielded from the reality that needs our attention. It makes us insensitive to a world that needs change and rescue.
I've lived the life that people chase, and found it unsatisfactory. In fact, it's only success was to strip away the privilege of an identity from me. A passport cannot be my identity; neither can the life of an immigrant build an identity for me. I've found myself in a crisis where the only thing closest to 'home' anymore is maybe where my fatigued old parents started their journey from- this country called Bangladesh.
I could have been anywhere but here. But I didn't even try. I didn't because if I am to live a life that I will never resent, I would rather start by liberating myself: from all illusions, from all formalities of a fallacious lifestyle lived only to appease our thirsts for comfort, and from all consolations that a country we are slaving for can possibly give us freedom- real freedom.
Freedom and the warmth that burns our chests and makes us feel human comes when we see people fight for progress, unite for justice and salvation from someone's crime, and in the struggle of the poor and unprivileged in trying to educate themselves and defeat their poverty.
Photo: Prabir Das
If I had to LIVE- really live- I'd rather live a life that is about more than just me. I would rather live in a world where I have the CHOICE to live any life I want: I can walk into a garden of green and watch centipedes crawl in a uniform rhythm; I can talk to and live with a 100 kinds of different people without having to worry about acceptance; I can also be a part of progress and growth made dynamic by a rising generation made of conscious, demanding, brilliant young people.
I feel liberated when I go to a campus that is a testimony to the biggest struggles that this nation faced to be more than just independent. I see an era of glory that liberated the people of this country. I find liberation.
I stay here because even though you wish the streets were cleaner and safer, that your government be less corrupt, and even though you exaggerate the dangers of stepping out of your house, I see people in this country working hard to reach the zenith of its growth and development as a nation and an economy. I see generations trying to build new things for this country: be it business ideas, platforms for artists, policies, or even struggling for rights of labourers and workers.
I see change in progress, no matter how slow, discreet, or difficult it is.
I do not consider myself a Bangladeshi. But I still stay here because I'd rather be a part of progress, even if it is a slow one, than just an outside spectator of celebrations of a nation I can't fit in; because I'd rather be hidden in the makings of history; because here, I find humility in the oldest and best university of Bangladesh among people of every kind I meet here. I find the warmth of belongingness. I find the spirit that fights for good and courage. I find the glory of tradition ensued in progress, modernity, diversity, and unlimited opportunities that only change can offer.
Which soul doesn't want to travel and see the world? The shame is when we miss the beauty right across us.
Here, I feel human.
Maliha Mohsin is an Associate at BridgeWee and a Psychology student at University of Dhaka '17
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments