I HAVE NO INTENTION TO TROLL, JUST WANNA SHARE, look what i found
in a renowned travel forum- m
German traveller henrik asked
to which Australian Zoltan replied
Dhaka compared to... Kolkata etc. - Lonely Planet travel forum
well, it doesnt mean Bangladesh is richer, just wanted to show you mirror
That lonely planet thread is managed by Bangladeshis, here's the the mirror for you.
Kolkata and Dhaka – a tale of two cities « Live it Lively
Another couple of hours on the bus later we rolled in to the middle of Kolkata. I didn’t know where we were, as we had no map, but the street was non-descript and fairly crowded. It was hot, it looked much like Bangladesh. But it felt different. We gradually found our bearings and a nice little hotel, and began to explore. First you realise it’s quiet. Then you notice that there’s no horrible smell. Then you notice that no-one else is noticing you; you’re not an attraction to stare at. And then we walked out on to a main road, came face to face with a huge landscaped park and an enormous white columned English building, and all the tiredness leapt away; we were in a real city.
Kolkata was crowded, as there must be nearly 20 million people there, but it felt bustling rather than chaotic. There were trees, rubbish bins for litter which were actually used (the only things clean in
Dhaka are the rubbish bins), traffic lights which worked, and were even obeyed. Tom and I were sitting in a taxi waiting at the lights, an open road in front of us and both of us recognised this as an impossible scenario in the Desh. Kolkata had lane markings on the roads. Taxi drivers queue up at ranks waiting for a fare, rather than hurtling straight for you and demanding your custom in exchange for not running you over. And they put it on the meter. Kolkata was quiet, as people don’t use their car-horns as if it’s a pacemaker. We kept on getting in trouble for walking in the roads, as we’d forgotten that some cities have pavements. The British had landscaped a lavish maidan right in the heart of the city to offer respite, and it’s still meticulously maintained, whereas in Bangladesh nearly every urban open space is either developed on or becomes a rubbish tip.
We did all these activities powered by beer. And pork, although there’s still a large Muslim population. And Chinese food cooked by Chinese people. Even the Bengali food tasted better, more succulent. There was a McDonalds in the centre of town, which had a large queue constantly outside it, but it was also opposite a fantastic little pastry shop called ‘Flurries’, that boasted of being around for five generations, had an interior straight out of the 1920s, and served delicious Darjeeling tea along with your full English.
Basically it felt to me as if this is what a proper South Asian city should be like; hot, busy, crowded and distinctly South Asian in the sights and smells and tastes. But a functioning city none-the-less, a city that has history and traditions and a public transport system and parks and social spaces, different cultures interacting with each other. And there was definitely a sense of civic pride in Kolkata, and a certain arrogance and self-importance, which would be a hangover from the British, I guess.
Whereas in Dhaka, part of the same Empire and same region, nothing special happened there until Partition and it suddenly became the capital of East Pakistan, and later Bangladesh. There’s almost no sense of colonial legacy at all other than the main court-house, and whilst Dhaka has exploded in population since 1971, to match Kolkata, it’s never had a similar level of planning, investment, or sense of pride I think, and it shows. Dhaka is what happens when 15 million people all move to the same small town with no-one in charge. Kolkata is what happens when you mix the world’s wealth of cultures and passions together. It’s not always pretty, but it feels good.
bechaaare ye praadi
