“Abbu, current chole giyeche?”

So here I am – five days in Dhaka already and it seems like I have never left! Things are the same and things have changed totally. It seems like traffic has become worse and then on the other hand, it wasn’t that good two years ago. So, bad traffic remains bad traffic.

The flight to Dhaka via Istanbul was quite exciting. My fist time in business class and my first time enjoying the lounge at Istanbul airport. Sarah, my colleague from Germany, and I thought we were late getting our connecting flight to Dhaka. After an enjoyable lounge time, we figured that we had to hurry to the gate. A quick walk turned into a quick run, until we finally reached the gate. Apparently we weren’t that late, since there was a crowd of people waiting for a bus to take us to the airplane. So when it was our turn, it was the third and last bus and we were last to board.
We had an overnight flight but I could hardly sleep. And I couldn’t keep track about the remaining flight duration and the distance to Dhaka, as the main screens were all shut off. So I spent my time, watching outside the window and inside the plane and outside the window and… until I saw something amazing. Lightning in the clouds in the pitch black night illuminating the sky for a second. Beauty!

As we finally reached Dhaka at 5am, Sarah, who is staying 1,5 months in Dhaka, had no trouble whatsoever getting through immigration. When it was my turn to get my immigration stamp, things weren’t so smoothly anymore. I am staying in a shared apartment this time, with a guy from Germany and a guy from America. So the address of my apartment all of a sudden didn’t exist, according to the immigration officer. After some back and forth, we found a compromise and I was able to join Sarah, who in the mean time picked up all of our luggage (which was mostly mine by the way).

I live in this huge 220 sqm apartment. And to keep it organized, we have a maid. Us three, we are chilled people – so I think is the maid. A little too chilled for my taste :).

On my first day I didn’t want to sleep during the day after arriving. So I decided to visit my grandmother in the area where I stayed the last time. My old barber shop was also there. I took advantage of it and got a haircut and shave. Sitting in the air-conditioned room with cable TV, the power all of a sudden went out. This little kid, that was waiting to get her hair cut (but only in the front, not in the back) asked her father “Abbu, current chole giyeche?” She basically asked her father, if the power went out. And it did, and it will do a whole lot more.

My fist days of work were great. We had such a nice welcome. And commuting from home to work is really easy. All dressed up on my way to work, I was inside the elevator with our maid. So to make conversation from the 15th floor to ground floor I looked in the mirror inside the elevator and asked her how I looked like. She said “hamsum”. And I just thought “welcome to Bangladesh…”.

Rickshaw fare from Banani to Gulshan-2: 30 Taka, 25 Taka if you are down to bargain.

At Istanbul Airport business class lounge

Getting a propper shave...

Where the work is at.

Apartment view 1

Apartment view 2

From far away, it may look like a total mess...

... but when you take a closer look, it is not that bad. Pain is when you love and leave.

The chubby guy

Do you know the song by U2 called “Stuck in a moment that you can’t get out of“? Well, there are moments that you don’t want to get out of. Like flying above the clouds and seeing the sun turn red and purple and then set at the end of the sky. Or flying through the black night above the sea and all of a sudden you see the lights at the shore of Dubai.

No pictures, just imagine.

But there are moments that you get pulled out of, for example when you meet the chubby guy. It’s not like I forgot his name, we never introduced each other properly. On my flight from Dubai to Dhaka we were sitting next to each other. Emirates Airlines has these entertainment systems that you can watch movies on demand on. So all of a sudden he asked me to help find an “NDA” movie.

I had no idea what he was talking about.

He said from his flight from Ta’if, where he used to work in Saudi Arabia, to Dubai he was watching “NDA” movies. I still had no idea so I went to “All movies A-Z” and asked him for the spelling. He just kept on saying “ND, ND”. Then all of a sudden it occurred to me, that he meant “Hindi, Hindi”. He wanted to watch the colorful Bollywood movies with lots of singing and dancing, which are in Hindi language.

But that wasn’t it. Of course he had to tell me his life story. The chubby guy wasn’t that old and had been working in Ta’if for eleven years as a salesman at a store. He was really dark skinned, well dressed and probably in his early thirties. He was returning to Bangladesh, leaving his life in Saudi Arabia behind to get married.

When I was filling out my immigration form to enter Bangladesh, he did not only ask for a pen, which would have been fine, he indirectly asked me to fill out his immigration form as well, which I kindly declined.

Then later, when it was time for breakfast, the steward asked whether he wanted the “vegetarian”or “non-vegetarian” dish. He just shook his head, not even looking at the steward. Do you know how South Asians shake their head the same way when they mean “yes” AND “no”? That’s how he shook it, leaving too much room for interpretation. I am pretty sure, with all the “ND, ND”, the immigration form and the breakfast incident, that he was illiterate. I saw him last waiting in line to pass immigration and still wonder how his life in Bangladesh will be after eleven years abroad.

Touchdown Dhaka: February 21^st, 8.33 am, 21° C.