From bangladesh with love :)

I am a different tourist . For one i travel "officially "  but thoroughly enjoy each country or place i visit . And secondly i am a person who loves a place more for its people than all its attractions combined .

To be honest i was not looking forward much for my Dhaka trip . Having gone to Sri lanka which is similar to south india  in many ways i was expecting dhaka to be similar to west bengal . But from the hearty welcome  at the immigration counter i was "at home "
                                                          I meant i was treated extremely warmly by all the people i met .
Having passed through immigrations in germany , china and kuwait the immigration clearance here took me just 10 minutes and the smiling officer asked only one question " You are from kerala ?  Great place "  Smiled , stamped the passport and that was it .  I felt i was visiting a next door neighbour than a strange land .

Changing money into the local currency Taka was good . For compared to indian rupee you get more value for money here . I put my mental calculator in reverse mode .  (1 euro= rs 70 while 1 euro =100 taka approx )  .  I stayed at Ruposhi bangla in the heart of Dhaka. (Ruposhi Bangla hotel  : on tripadvisor needs a separate review by itself )  .

My work involved training the doctors and ct technologists at Bangladeshs premier neuro institute . In my evenings i visited the local shops , Dhaka university  etc and met some very nice people . Now you may ask me " Dr arent you living among nice people "  Please read again :  I wrote i met "very " nice people and i mean it  . Where should i begin :

I am neither the senior most doctor in india  or the chief of army staff .. But when the seniormost radiologist of Bangladesh stands up to meet me and speaks to me with genuine respect and talks to me like an old friend    though we have just met  says a lot about them .  Is he an exception ? No

When another senior person both in age and social status who is a PhD from Japanese university welcomed me warmly and had a heart to heart discussion on religion , india-bangladesh relations , his student days in japan etc and who was so persistent in offering me "tea "  . I never knew bangladeshi tea had a cumpulsory accompaniment of hot samosas(the very best ) and even crispy chicken fry  .  To a bewildered me (it was 6 pm only ) he explained in Bangladesh be it the rich or the poor hospitality is very important  .  If you visit an extremely poor farmers house even if he didnt have anything to give he will at least offer the farm produce in his house .  And to top it all this senior person was a Bangladeshi freedom fighter who had participated in  bangladeshi liberation movement of 1971  .

A pretty girl i met  (did i say pretty  ?  She was very pretty  :)  )  was very nice . Though we didnt discuss bangladeshi foreign policy , though a stranger she was very down to earth and was very intelligent in her conversations . And why i told nice because she too was very warm and friendly . But a down to earth pretty stranger who became a friend reiterates my belief that  this country  is  filled with many warm friendly people


And did i tell you i ran off from  a dinner invitation tonight ?  I was already full with hospitality by one person while another is offering me dinner  ...Cmon I AM A STRANGER  :)

Coming from  a hospitable culture (India )  i realised for the first time that there were friendlier and more hospitable people than us in this planet ... That includes bangladesh  ...