European countries
A new Bangladesh through the eyes of an expatriate Bengali
I am a village boy. I grew up walking muddy paths, enduring storms and rain, and studying under the light of a hurricane lamp. A few years in the village school, then at a school in a sub-divisional (now district) town, and later at Dhaka Residential Model School and College (DRMC)—this was the path of my education. From there, I passed HSC and set off for distant Sweden. Back then, I didn’t realise how uncomfortable the simplest questions in life could make someone, and how even speaking the truth could sometimes be seen as a fault. I learnt Bengali in the village—from my mother’s mouth, from the scent of the earth. The accent may not be urban, but it is full of heart. To many, this language might seem ‘broken’, but it is in this broken language that I have been writing for the last 10 years. I know that words require not only grammar but also the essence of the heart. My language is not for paper, but for life.