The capital of Bangladesh is taking rest

| by Swadesh Roy

( August 25, 2012, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) If you visited Dhaka a month ago and if you land on Dhaka today, you will be confused, am I right, and is this Dhaka? Where is that overcrowded road and that terrible traffic Jam? In a normal time, if you want to reach Hotel Sheraton from Dhaka Airport, it will take more than two hours, now you can reach within 10 minutes. In the time of Ramadan, there was an Iftar party at Gana Bhavan (the residence of Prime Minister). The Prime Minister organized it in the honor of all the professional key persons. I went to join it from Baily Road of Dhaka. It took me one hour and fifty minutes but on Eid day, I went to Gana Bhavan from Baily Road, and it took only five minutes. In the evening, there was heavy rain so there was some traffic jam. However, from Haer road to Gulsan, a posh area of Dhaka it took only ten minutes. The Governor of Bangladesh Bank said, at noon he went to Bangabhaban to meet the President, it only took three to four minutes. However, he has to go to his office near that place every day it takes more than one and half-hours.

People are hoping that, this picture of the city will continue until the coming Sunday (26 August). At that time, people will start to come to Dhaka. Nevertheless, the overcrowded and traffic stagnant Dhaka will be seen from the first week of September. 20 August (Monday), was the holy Eid day, people have celebrated Eid. On the Eid day people had taken all delicious foods, which basically consisted of meat recipes, so many people went to the kitchen market today (Tuesday, 21August) for purchasing some fish or vegetable to take light food. They are very happy to go to the kitchen market because the Hilsha Fish is very cheap. Professor Muntasir Mamun, is a renowned historian of Bangladesh and a popular political analyst of the country. Most of the time he passes with writing. He is not used to go to kitchen market, but hearing the price of the Hilsha fish he went to the Kitchen market; he purchased four Hilsa fish, which is around Six kg, by three thousand taka.

All the big shopping malls of Dhaka are closed now. It will be open from 26 August. Some will open much later. Most of the salespersons of the shop of the posh shopping malls are villagers, they have gone to their homes to celebrate Eid with there relatives. The media of Dhaka are saying that, more than ten Million people have left Dhaka and have gone to village to celebrate Eid with there relatives. In addition, of that, one hundred and fifty thousand people have come from abroad to the country, to celebrate Eid with their relatives. On the other hand, half a million families have gone abroad to enjoy the Eid and Eid vacation.

The businessmen of the Bangladesh are very happy now. In the beginning of the Eid shopping, they thought that, this year business could be a little worse. Now it has shown that, every business has done ten percent better more than last year. In Eid occasion, the main businesses revolve around the garments. Now the businesspersons’ source of Bangladesh has said that, garments have been sold to around 240 million taka. Their source also admits that, total transaction of the Eid occasion is around 470 million taka. Therefore, they are very happy.

In addition, the government is happy for their success, because three years ago when they came to power, then the supply of electricity was very bad in Bangladesh. The demand of electricity in Bangladesh is at least 6 thousand mega watts, but then Bangladesh could only produce two--thousand seven hundred mega watt. The previous caretaker, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party ,Jammat-e- Islami and other fundamentalist coalition didn’t even produce a Mega watt of electricity. However, these last three years, this Government has produced 3100 Mega watt of electricity. So they were able to supply continuous electricity in this Ramadan. Besides that, a part of the media forecasted that prices of daily commodities would be hiked which did not happen. So people have passed the holy month peacefully and they have celebrated Eid with a very happy and Joyful mood. Now it could be said that, after a great festival, the capital of Bangladesh is taking rest. But it is true there is no rest in the fast food shops, in Dhaka there are many areas which are famous for delicious fast foods and is a gathering or meeting place for the youth. Those who are now in Dhaka, mainly adolescent boys and girls are meeting there, and are passing their time with a carefree mood.

Swadesh Roy, Executive Editor, The Daily Janakantha, Dhaka, Bangladesh