Sunday, March 18, 2007

Botanical Garden and Zoo

Botanical Gardens and Zoos are the same all around the world. The variety of species may differ but the concept is the same. Plants grow in botanical garden and animals are caged in zoos. Zoos are inhumane places because no one can justify imprisonment of innocent individuals. Sanctuaries are logical. But of course, species like Pere david deer could be saved from extinction only because they were conserved in zoos.

How I went to the Botanical Garden of Dhaka is a funny story. All of us chatted throughout the night and by the time we finished chattering, it was already morning. So nana, who preferred sleeping over pointless chats, woke up for his regular morning walks. Apamoni and I accompanied him and reached the Botanical Garden on foot. (We were staying at Shinepukhur, Mirpur, which is near the Botanical Garden). All sorts of enthusiastic morning walkers - people of all shape and size- thronged the place. It’s a beautiful place and any nature loving Wordsworth would love it, but the only thing that makes such a morning mournful are the two million, fifty three thousand, eight hundred and twenty four mosquitoes (that’s my statistic). Each one of them wants to have an early morning buffet of human blood. But these are acceptable in a botanical garden affixed to a zoo.

Theme Parks

Fantasy Kingdom: It’s basically a theme park with loads of thrilling rides. No, not thrilling enough to make your guts fall out of your ears, but OK. It’s not huge either. What I particularly enjoyed was the roller coaster. There is another ride named Magic Carpet which gives you some degree of free fall. Other than that I didn't see anything unique. There are loads of rides (as I said earlier) but those rides are just cliché. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the day. The road taking you from Dhaka to the place is super. There are hundreds of brick kiln on the road. Smoke coming out of the tall chimneys looks beautiful (Ah! Pollution!). We had pizza on a li'le Italian restaurant called, what else, Little Italy.

Nandan: Is it just me or is tiny just in fashion? This water theme park is marvelous, not in terms of rides, but in terms of coolness. There are a few slides, magic (concave and convex, I know) mirrors and a pool where artificial waves are created. There is a cable car too (Oh so tacky!). Let me cut the short story shorter and come to conclusion: Basically this is Nandan.

Wonderland: Another theme park right in the heart (or kidney or liver... ah well) of the city. I liked the 3D movie and the simulator over here. Its funny but I have never seen a 3D movie before although I have been to several places where 3D movies are shown. Call it bad luck or crappy coincidence, but whenever I go to any of such place, the place remains closed or simply under repair. No matter as finally I saw just what I had been waiting to see for years.

Introduction

I do not intend to create any sort of guide or something with this blog. The information provided herein although are believed to be true is not guaranteed. I repeat once more that this is just an online journal containing information about my Bangladesh Tour of 2005.I went there after my Class X Board Exams to meet my relatives.

We (me and my maternal grandfather) went from Guwahati to Agartala by flight and took the Indo-Bangladesh Bus to Dhaka. We met a teeny-tiny accident on the road. Our bus knocked down an old man (for whom it was not a teeny-tiny accident) on the road. Awesome, eh?

I met many wonderful people during my month long stay. A few of the people are:

Apamoni: Her name is Aunmony. I call her Apa because Apa means elder sister in Urdu. She is my cousin, my father's elder brother's daughter. She is one of the most wonderful person I have ever met. (Apamoni, thank me for writing this great lie.)

Nabila: I can write volumes about her, but I am not going to do so because this blog is not supposed to contain biographies. She is a little bit crazy. But for some unknown reasons you simply love her craziness.

Ninia:Nabila's sister. She was preparing for her O-level exams when I went there. She is the only student of science that I met during the whole month. (Apart from Duti fufu, who is studying MBBS).

Eshan is Nabila and Ninia's brother. He has the personality of the proverbial English gentleman.

Shreya: Najnin fufu's daughter. She is a student of Class I and is really cute.

Asheque bhaiya and Raka bhabhi: Bhaiya is a senior Executive in Gazi Communication. Both bhaiya and bhabhi are really, really wonderful people.

Abid bhaiya: Nabila calls him Abu. He is a really amazing person. I don't know what he does, but he talks a lot with someone called Jahid bhai on his mobile.


I hope I am politically correct in my description of the people. If any of you guys have anything to say please e-mail me. I will edit the descriptions and fill it with whatever you want to hear about yourself.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Video 1