ekla chaalo (walk alone..)

13th march

the trip to the ghats is quite a ride. no autorickshaw/ tuktuk wants to go there, its old dhaka and yes, it is old! i constantly remind myself to not whisper "Hi" to every person I make eye contact with.

the boat is not leaving today, so another day in dhaka for me.

i come back and read to tahsin, mahmud's 4 year old, for the next 2 hours. i have to strain my mind to remember, starfish, sea-horse, even crocodile.. it must be age.

for the first time in years, i experience lights out. we take chairs to the terrace and watch the city hum by. ruma, mahmud's wife, has a migraine. it is hot and humid, a cloth fan provides some relief.

14th march

i wake up at 1:30 AM after sleeping through the entire evening, read for a few hours and then go back to sleep. seems like I am catching up on the last few years of sleep and reading.

its a friday, and bangladesh's weekend has begun. being a muslim country, friday and saturday constitute the weekend in bangladesh.

breakfast is followed by cha (tea) and mahmud tosses a newspaper my way, saying cha is incomplete without one.. that is a perfect cup of tea.

still not willing to let go of the real world, i head to the internet cafe down the street. i guess, i will be catching up on my patience too :)

next is a ride to the travel fair in the sheraton in an tuktuk. with a bandana over my nose and mouth and sunglasses, I almost fit in. i pick up information about thailand and nepal- 2 more pounds!

the ride back is in a double-decker bus, so i make myself comfortable on the last seat and for the first time in bangladesh, take out my camera. hello, dhaka!

its a special lunch day - with fried fish, beef curry, pumpkin vegetable, potato vegetable and gourd vegetable- only in an indian buffet in sunnyvale have I had so many choices (without the beef, of course)! mahmud and ruma are wonderful hosts and very warm and generous people. ruma quickly packs up rotis and vegetables before we leave for the docks.

the boat to rayenda is not leaving today as well. so mahmud suggests taking the rocket - a historic paddleboat which goes till massua and then you take a small boat (trawler) into rayenda.

i have my 15 minutes of fame right there, standing at the ghat while waiting for the rocket. people stop and stare and then just stop. i am one of them and yet not. confusing perhaps?

i start taking photos, of the place and people around me. i see smiles through the lens and more smiles and then more people. a young man asks me to take a picture of a toothless old man, i oblige and then show him his photo. he waves his aging hands and grins. soon, the mysticism around this flashing device and me is lost - i am one of them. the crowd disperses, some lurk around.

the cabin is 1500 takas, but well worth it. i have a first class sleeper cabin with 2 beds, lots of room to keep the 80 lbs of stuff i am carrying.

while surveying the rocket (and i love saying that!), i meet g - he speaks english! for sometime, i dont have to use sign language! g is volunteering with hodr and is going to rayenda as well. he has been on the road for about a year and a half, with a few days back home and holds the distinction(so far) of being the only one who didn't know of lonely planet before he began his journey! thats pretty hard to beat..

he has been working with hodr for a month and took a break for a week. so i ask him a thousand questions about the project, imagining myself there.

i know i am going to trails that are waiting to be discovered, and paanch raaste (five ways) which seems to have some spiritual significance. the journey has really begun..