Whatever else you can say about Bangladesh, it’s a country in which it is impossible not to feel, to reflect and react. To live in Bangladesh is to slowly come to understand the landscape of the self: there you discover your own map and your own borders: the things which delight, horrify, enlighten and move you. Nothing is hidden from view, nothing is sanitised. It’s a place which offers up to you the best and the worst that you can be.
All of human life is there on every street. You have no choice but to dive into it, confront it, and realise how connected your story is to each person who comes your way. There is nowhere to hide. Bangladesh forces you into conclusions about what you believe in, who you are, and who you want to be. It is a mirror for the entire human condition, and mirrors neither lie, nor accept lies from you. Once you’ve looked in this mirror, you can’t pretend any longer not to have seen what’s there.
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January 6th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
What a beautiful piece! This is exactly it and that is why no matter how maddening things are Bangladesh is so attractive to me. Thanks again Andrew. You have nailed it.
January 6th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Nice article on Bangladesh from someone who is a westerner. I really enjoyed it. Thanks.
January 7th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Dear Andrew,
It’s a terrific piece: your talk of local hope will rejuvenate us among mountain height of hopelessness, constant surge of sorrows and silly states; and also help people reflect their own images in the global pessimism.
You are one of my very specific author as I see my unexpressed thinking for lack of language, amazingly penned through your articles.
I now strongly believe, the idea of neighborhood between two persons A & B in the building C should no longer be restricted. In my redefinition of neighborhood, Mr. Charles Albert of the village Chelsea of lower-town Manhattan and the poor guy Mr. Cherag Ali of village Charlahania where I was born, despite thousands of miles of physical distance, are neighbors. Because IT and other scientific development has really devoured that distance. Now we need thousands of Andrews to draw people together through theirs pens.
Andrew is , I believe, a small but a significant span of the longest bridge to abridge the sea of difference among humans because of the constricted concept of culture, ethnicity, religion, religion and so on.
Thanks once again.