Feature

Bangladesh in their hearts

Md. Lutful Hoque Khan

Everybody knows your country because the Himalayas is in Nepal,” I said during an adda with my Nepali friends in the BUET Campus.

“Now your country will also be recognized by everybody in the world,” said Suman. “Because Dr. Muhammad Yunus has been awarded the Nobel prize.”

I looked at them and realized that though they came from Nepal, they are very concerned about Bangladesh and cherish her in their hearts.

They have come from Nepal to study in BUET. They are nineteen in number and all are living in Abdur Rashid Hall. “Oh man, the whole Abdur Rashid Hall is fully in our control,” said one of them with a big smile. Most of them are from Kathmandu. Among them, I am in particular good terms with Suman (Computer Science, 4-2) Sushil, Umesh and Sheikh Nasirullah (Electrical, 4-2), Amar (Mechanical, 4-2), Ritesh and Ananta (Electrical, 1-2), Siddharth (Chemical, 1-2) Sujit (Civil, 1-2) ,Ronjit (Civil, 4-2) Kamal Ashraf (Chemical, 4-2) and Dipendra (Electrical, 3-1). I find them to be very warm, friendly, simple minded and fun loving. The duration of their stay in Bangladesh varies from one to four years, but many things about this country have touched their hearts. They have frankly said that the educational facility of this country is better than that in Nepal. There is only one Engineering Institution in Nepal that is run by government, while in Bangladesh there are many.

The sea beach in Cox's Bazar was a great delight to them when they went to visit there. They also enjoyed Sonargaon, Maynamati and other such historical places, but they were not very interested in visiting the hill tracts of Chittagong and Rangamati, since in Nepal there are so many hill tracts. They mentioned Bashundhara City and Rifles Square several times. They go to these shopping complexes, enjoying as much as a hang-out as for shopping, since there are not many such shopping complexes in their capital Kathmandu. However, they do feel very annoyed when they get trapped in the famous "traffic jam” of Dhaka. They are also concerned about the political conflicts between the two main political parties of the country. Recently, a peace treaty has been signed between the Maoists and the government of Nepal. They feel this kind of attempt should also be taken to remove the political uncertainty of Bangladesh.

They love Bangladeshi music, especially James, Ayub Bachchu and Artcell. Among the Nepali singers they like Navin K. Bhatta Rai, Dipesh Sabin and Band Unity. They frankly admitted that the quality of music in Bangladesh is better than that in Nepal, but they also feel that the quality of Bangladeshi movies should be improved.

They miss the natural beauty of the places in Nepal like pokra- a place surrounded by lakes, where the Himalayas starts, and Manokamana-the one and only place where people reach from one mountain peak to another by cable car. But while living in Bangladesh, this country has occupied such a place in their heart that they will miss it wherever they live in future, just as they now miss Nepal.

Bangladesh is in their hearts and will remain so...