Ekushey observance

Then all the pupils of St Andrew's Mission High School gathered in the playground - around 700 of us -- and, silently and solemnly, moved off, in double file behind the banner that proclaimed the school's founding in 1923. (The Mission was founded in 1912 by a Garo and Bengali Brotherhood not a foreign missionary in sight!) Then the area was predominantly jungle and the Garo people. Now they were Garo and Bengali, and Muslim, Hindu and Christian -- all together celebrating being Bangladeshis.

We walked through the streets of Haluaghat, through the bazaar and round about, in bare feet. It would have been heresy to have shoes but I dare not look down to see what I was walking in! Occasionally, when we met another school, coming in the opposite direction, it was rather a squash to get by. All the schools of the area were parading and the residents and shop-keepers looked upon us with approval, carrying our flowers and making our winding way to the memorial, where hundreds of us gathered to place our flowers and hear the occasional speech before skipping off to have the rest of the day free.

Although only an Assistant Teacher, I was invariably put up front, holding the middle of the banner and I hoped that, as the only resident foreigner for miles around, I was contributing to the occasion by conveying the 'International' bit of the International Mothers' Day.

Since I have been in Dhaka, I have found no way of celebrating Ekushey, alongside the local schoolchildren, in such a participative way. I have attended some 'posh' functions as a member of an audience to hear some lovely songs and poems but this is hardly 'participative'. This year, I have been reliably informed that it would be an embarrassment to those in charge of security for me to take my white face to the celebration at the University. How sad! I suggested to someone that the children of the schools of Lalmatia could march together round its streets and the idea was greeted with a shriek and the declaration that the parents would never allow it. Even more sad! I can only mutter that, in this, as in many other things, if Haluaghat is anything to go by, the country children of Bangladesh have all the luck.