Feature

Beyond the Urban Jungle

Hasib Reza

AND finally we were there. A quaint little village in the heart of the rainforest, with picturesque mud houses embellished amongst the lush greenery. The greenery was enough to make any postcard from Switzerland look plain. Sprinkled among the trees like chocolate chips in a cookie, were the enigmatic chip-chirps and twittering of birds. Their sounds were omnipresent, yet the birds remained hidden from view. In the air was a delicate cocktail of unknown fragrances that heightened the atmosphere. We were in Shangri La.

With great fervor and excitement, sixteen of us from our Development Communication course had started off from Dhaka that morning. The destination was Srimangal and the objective was to gain first-hand knowledge on the education scenario of the indigenous Khasia population residing there.

However, all of us being seasoned urban dwellers, lacked even the rudimentary idea on what to expect. The journey was short and uneventful, and with Akkas on the wheel we reached Srimangal town with ample of time to spare. The town at first glance was a collection of the old and the new. The streets were lined with small buildings and shops, even though selling new amenities, had a trace of a past era within them. Often within the dark and shady shops we often came across a brand new and brightly lit building standing out from the rest. The whole experience was that of a town from twenty years in the past taking its first steps into modern technology. Upon entering the town, I saw a sugar-cane vendor looking curiously at our bus. Whatever that was in his mind was unfathomable to me. Perhaps he was like rest of the people in the place wondering what we were up to. It was an oddly disconcerting feeling, that living only about 130 kilometers of each other had created such a gulf of difference among us.

After some rest and a quick lunch at a local restaurant we were on our way Lawachara forest reserve. As we travelled through the lovely winding roads that carved between the hillocks of tea plantation, it was tempting to let one's imagination to run wild. What must the people living here be like? How different were they from us? On the entry gate of the Lawachara Forest Reserve, one could feel the anxiety and suppressed excitement in the air.

The Lawachara forest was truly a sight to behold. It is an area stretching into many miles of undulating green flora. The names of these trees varied from those we have never seen or even heard of, to those we may have heard once long ago. Frankly speaking, the whole place seemed to be a page from 'The Jungle Book'. We amateur explorers ventured through the shady canopy hopped over few streams and shrieked at few spiders, but in about an hour's time we were looking at Lawachara Khasia village.

As we plodded through the storybook village, many villagers introduced themselves with warm smiles. We spend a few minutes basking in the alluring beauty of the place and let our cameras on a clicking frenzy. We then proceeded to inspect the only primary school over there called Shobuj Shikkha.

The school was more of a single makeshift room made of bricks and a corrugated tin roof. There were roughly thirty students in that school and were taught by the sole teacher Raymond. Each of us spent some time participating in their school activities, and we introduced ourselves to Giti, Nuncio, Renan and many other children. We shared on our thoughts on living in the city, while they spoke about theirs in their village. This reciprocation created an epiphany amongst us as these children with so little knowledge had such craving for education. We spent the later part of the day playing with them and visiting their families. Their parents discussed their financial problems and how it affects the education. We learnt that many children, despite willing to study had no choice but leave school, as they were made to shoulder the heavy burden of earning for the family. This was once again a dismal reminder that even now, so many children in Bangladesh are used as economic assets. Nuncio took me to his home and he showed me the family cow Misow. Later I was introduced to Rocky, his elder brother. Like many others, he also had to give up education to work at the 'Paan' (beetle nuts) plantation. Later Rocky left us mesmerized as he played some tunes on his guitar. Rocky aspires to be a musician someday and we both knew that it is unlikely that his dream would ever come true.

As dusk started to shroud the rainforest, we made our way back.

The next day, we visited the village Katiachara just outside Srimangal town. Katiachara is a more densely populated region than Lawachara and its main inhabitants are the local tea workers who live in the labor lines. The tea workers were provided this land by the tea estates, upon which they had built their simple mud-houses. The Katiachara Prathomik Biddyalay was established at 1984 and their current numbers of students are 135. The school itself is a large single room where only four teachers are left in charge of all the 135 students. As one would expect, the conditions in this school are grim. The students had outnumbered the number of desks, and most of them had to crowd themselves on the floor. The teachers complained that they are paid only 1000tk per month to take all the classes, and it is an impossible task to pay attention to all the children. We found evidence to that statement, in the reading and writing quality of the children that were actually much poorer than that of Lawachara. We later visited the families and all of them were very enthusiastic about educating their children. However, the most heart-warming story was heard from the kids themselves when they told us that many of them save their lunch money to donate to a small scholarship fund that they have set up, and every year they gift the money to the best student amongst them.

As we made our way home, I was troubled. In this journey we had hoped to find answers to questions that we had read in theories. However, instead of finding answers we were introduced to brand new threshold of questions. For many of us in the affluent world, education or the entire development process for that matter is melodrama of complex jargons and theories. But I guess, what many of us overlook is the human aspect of the whole system. We had gifted some pencils and copies to all the school children, and I was reminded of the smiles in their faces. So little could entice so much joy. In our quest to socio-economic perfection, we simply forget the faces of those we are actually working for. It was probably in the Spiderman movie someone said, “with great power comes great responsibility”. I don't think we need a Spiderman to help us. With minute contribution and a little awareness from all of us, we are sure to go a long way.

(The writer is a student of Media & Communication at IUB.)