Bangladesh is cheap!

Transportation is the cheapest. We traveled from the Sonargaon hotel to Dhanmandi in a taxi for Taka 27 (less than one half of a dollar) and from the Dhaka University campus to Mohammadpur for only 60 Taka (one dollar) tips included! Restaurants are equally cheap. Ten of us dined in an excellent Chinese restaurant in Gulshan for only Taka equivalent of fifty dollars (5 dollars per person), which stunned my elder son traveling with me! Hotel and restaurant prices are more western like in Dhaka's top two international 5-star hotels, Sonargaon and Sheraton.

As I was to appear in Bangladesh Television's (BTV) current affairs programme "Laal Golap" (due to be telecast at 10:30 P.M. after the English news on Friday, August 13), I needed shirts and pants. I was advised to visit "Big Boss" in Dhanmandi. I purchased a couple of brand name shirts and a couple of Dockers trousers for 5-6 dollars each. In the US they would have cost at least five times as much. I also needed sweat shirts and pants. For that I visited "Banga Bazaar" near Dhaka University's Fazlul Huq Hall. A Reebok sweat shirt and pant cost only Taka 425, or about seven dollars. In the US it would have cost seven times as much. Much to the chagrin of my relatives, I did not bargain, because I thought the prices were low enough for me already!

Bangladeshis have a way with words. We cut our hair at a barber shop named "Hairobics" for only Taka 50 (less than a dollar), including a head massage! In the US a haircut costs at least 15 to 20 dollars. Delighted, we gave the barber an equal amount in tips which he accepted without betraying his surprise and gratitude. Armed with the mighty dollar one can be very generous in Bangladesh at a very little cost.

We found ourselves in the middle of the Dengu season. Our planned trip to Chittagong and Cox's Bazaar had to be canceled because of the Dengu epidemic. I learned so much about Dengu this time. In the mosquito world they must be buzzing their wings off laughing about how petrified the humans are of them! My relatives were horrified to learn that I had taken a walk along the Dhanmandi Lake one day before dusk with a friend along with thousands of others. Mosquitoes do not generate Dengu, I was reminded, they carry the virus from one infected human to another. As such, it is a folly, I was mildly admonished, to frequent places where infected humans may be roaming. Even while going for the Juma prayers, we were advised to spray our uncovered skin with mosquito spray, plenty of which we had purchased in the US in anticipation of our trip.

Ordinarily a mild mannered man, I was amazed to see my transformation into an animal with killer instincts as soon as I detected the buzz of a mosquito anywhere within the vicinity of where I was. With the eyes and hands of a serial killer, I would relentlessly pursue the fast moving insect until I put an end to it. My relatives would then examine the squashed remains of the dead insect to see its parting gift to us - stripes (Dengu possibility) or no stripes (only malaria possibility)! Those who contracted Dengu could never recollect the moment they were bitten, I was told. As the Dengu incubation period is between 7 to 10 days, we are definitely not out of the woods yet.

We also found ourselves in the middle of the flood season. Although floods act as a natural source of fertilizer by depositing alluvial soil on most of the cultivable lands in Bangladesh which subsequently yield bumper crops, this year's flood, like that of 1998 and 1988 did much more harm than good. Right before our eyes, several areas of Dhaka City became submerged. The newspapers did an excellent job of reporting the worsening flood situation all over the country and the accompanying human misery index with vivid pictures. We visited the embankment near Savar which protects most of Dhaka City. It may be recalled that before the embankment was constructed, in 1988 most of Dhaka, including the airport was under water during the flood season. We saw the full horror of the floods after we took off from Dhaka airport. Flood water seemed to be everywhere until we left Bangladesh's air space.

In all of my years at Dhaka I had never visited two of the most famous historical monuments of Dhaka the Lalbagh Fort and Ahsan Manzil. Due to neglect, the Lalbagh Fort had degenerated into grazing grounds for cows and homes for the police. Due to the untiring efforts of Bangladesh's most famous archeologist, Dr. Nazimuddin Ahmed, between 1975 and 1980 the Lalbagh Fort was renovated and restored. In his booklet, "Mughal Dhaka and Lalbagh Fort," available at the Lalbagh Fort, Dr. Nazimuddin Ahmed describes the finest surviving specimen of Mughal Dhaka, Lalbagh Fort, (originally named Aurangabad Fort in honour of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb) as follows: "Rectangular in plan, it encloses an area of 1082 feet by 700 feet and in addition to its two gracefully lofty gateways on south-east and north-east corners and a subsidiary small unpretentious gateway on north, it also includes within its fortified parameter a number of elegant monuments surrounded by attractive gardens. These are: a small 3-domed mosque on west, the striking mausoleum of Bibi Pari, the reputed daughter of Nawab Shaista Khan and the Audience Hall with "hammam" of the governor to the east of the precinct. The main purpose of this fort, it seems was to provide a defensive enclosure of the palatial edifices of the interior and as such, was a type of palace-fortress rather than a siege fort." The Lalbagh Fort is currently the largest open space in old Dhaka. As we were fortunate enough to tour the fort with Dr. Nazimuddin Ahmed himself, it was gratifying to see thousands of Bangladeshis taking a lesson in their cultural heritage at the theme-park setting of the Lalbagh Fort at a very nominal entrance fee of Taka 2.

We were also fortunate enough to tour the Ahsan Manzil by the river Buriganga in the company of Dr. Nazimuddin Ahmed. Ahsan Manzil is the residence-office complex of Dhaka's Nawab family. This is where Nawab Salimullah hosted the likes of Lord Curzon (after whom Dhaka University's science complex "Curzon Hall" is named), and such meetings had a lot to do with the establishment of Dhaka University, East Pakistan, and finally Bangladesh. Ahsan Mazil has been restored due to the foresight of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the acquiring of the property during General Ershad's time and renovation work under the guidance of Dr. Enamul Haque. Ahsan Manzil too is the largest open space around the river Buriganga. The admission fee is Taka 2, and once again it was wonderful to see thousands of Bangladeshis visiting one of their most famous historic sites.

It has been a long time since I stayed for full five weeks in Bangladesh. All other recent visits have been much shorter and during winter. As I went around Dhaka and visited our ancestral home near Feni, I felt an intense sense of kinship with everyone. I genuinely sensed that the street urchin, the rickshawala, the men in fancy cars and the pretty girls in the shopping malls were a part of who I am. And I felt pretty good about it.