"Shakhari Bazaar: Sustainability in the Cultural Context"
I am pleased to get a response on my above-mentioned article from an informed reader as Mr. Islam (DS: 23.07.04). He is right in noting the Shakhari Bazaar issue as a relevant one. That this issue has been haunting the policy planners for decades is precisely the reason for writing the article, to resituate the issue within the cultural context. My point was, and still is, that culture matters. If someone is yet to be convinced about this view, I believe reading the recent 'Human Development Report 2004: Cultural Liberty in Today's Diverse World' would help. Mr. Islam's key assertion that the way of life and living is more important, and not the buildings (in Shakhari Bazaar), leaves us to think water without its container. Within his preferred premise, that only water matters, we wonder why Old Dhakaiya people are on the move, away from their habitat? Do they take away their unique way of life and living to New Dhaka, and recreate another old Dhaka? Findings to these questions, I presume, would be quite revealing for Old Dhaka. However, he is wrong in saying that I pointed to late Prof. Najmul Karim for sustaining Shakhari Bazaar. Please check the original copies. His reference to Mr. Chowdhury's view (DS: 19.07.04) left me with no choices but to reflect on, although I am not quite sure yet whether any specific reference was made to my article. I wonder if Mr. Chowdhury had checked, with his stated academic affiliation (BRAC University), what prevented RAJUK and DCC from intervening earlier? I have an inherent limitation that I hope Mr. Islam would understand. I cannot propose, let alone endorse, uncritical and patronizing gesture to those who have been in the printed media and research repeatedly for wrong reasons, to say the least.
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