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Feature

A SAARC tour, an incredible experience

Md. Nahid Emran Ullah

Our dream was to have a tour abroad with friends, classmates and teachers. After we were in third year we got the opportunity to fulfill our dream. In professional and family life it is natural to visit abroad, but with mates it is only possible in university and college life. So we didn't miss the opportunity.

Like our predecessors we went to our head and expressed our dream. “No teacher will take the responsibility of SAARC tour, so no Tour this year” Head of Business Administration Discipline, Khulna University replied. We clearly received the message that the most important task to start tour preparation was managing a caring teacher for tour coordination. We all of our class worked out for that. Finally with lots of request and commitment our honorable teacher, Mr. Eijaj Ahmed agreed to move with us.

The next was a mammoth task for us i.e. collecting money to cover tour expenses. Some money was supplied by university but that was only 10% of tour budget. So as usual we decided to publish a souvenir which would include advertisements, our real source of money. All of the classmates were in a competition with each other, who will bring which advertisement and ensure tour participation. The competition yielded an excellent result i.e. ever highest amount of university SAARC Tour record as advertisement.

Souvenir Publication became another challenge. Collecting articles from VC, Pro-VC, Dean, teachers, students along with selecting articles, designing, editing, printing, distributing was not easy job to manage. Our hard work and team approach made it successful. I must thank Sumon, Devdut, Sagoto and other mates for their excellent contribution.

Then collecting visas of SAARC countries, we thought it would be an easy task, we were wrong. This issue forced us to reschedule the total tour. No Visa Processing Agent would manage visas for us even for a very high visa-fee. At that time Visa Processing Agents were facing problem in getting visa from India and Pakistan. It was just a clear threat to our tour, but we became more aggressive and decided to move to Dhaka from Khulna. In the midnight of December-Just Think-You are on the line of visa applicants; cold breeze touches your bones and cannot stop shivering. You are not sure whether you will get the visa or not. Yes, we passed a whole night and half of a day on the street of Gulshan and got visa of India only in the next day. Our plan was to visit India for the whole 20 days.

We, fifteen tourists crossed Benapole border and forgot all the hurdles those we had faced in Bangladesh. We bought four SIM cards and communicated the cell numbers to each other and to our families. This relaxed us in the way that we would not be missing.

Almost a triangular shape was our journey map. We visited Kolkata, Mumbai, Goa, Shimla, New Delhi, Agra. We had lots of fun and incredible moments with friends

You will get many Bangladeshi in Kolkata who go to see doctors and lovely places. Mumbai is one of the nicest cities with a lovely seacoast, film industry and comparatively less living cost. The 33 beaches, small hills as well as very comfortable weather will plead you to reside in Goa forever. I am sure you will compare the mountains covered by ice, snow fall and apple garden of Shimla with those of the Heaven. Whatever hard your heart is, It must melt with the architectural design of Taj Mahal and heart touching history. The Red Fort, Kutub Minar and other monuments of New Delhi will remind you the Muslims' lost kingdom in the subcontinent.

We are really grateful to our honorable VC, Pro-VC, Head and teachers for their valuable contribution, without their support the tour would still remain a dream. Though we faced some problem like unfriendly attitude of some Indian, we believe the tour was an incredible experience that will often make us nostalgic frequently.

Md. Nahid Emran Ullah
11th Batch, SOMBA, Khulna University