Anything can happen in Bangladesh

Hmp.

Exempli gratia, I saw a bus colliding with a boat in Tongi. There is a certain part which is pretty low, and waterlogging is a fast phenomenon there, so people keep boats handy. Not some cruiser, but not palm dinghees either. At least 10-12 men could accomodate themselves on these vessels.

Well, our buses can wade through waterlogged roads if they are allowed to rub the dividers when they move [typically all roads in Bangladesh is like the back of an Elephant, high in the middle, low around the edges], and they can wade with a respectable speed. The boatman was cruising along the road, with comfortable ease, and underestimated the driver who was in charge of the wheels. The bus driver, perhaps, was pissed to see such a parasite on the road. Who cares if an alien gets thumped?

The Boatman was furious. Not only his boat got a shake, he was wet from the sprinkling water. He wielded his log and greeted the driver with warm news of intimacy with the driver’s mother. The driver delegated a surprising message of coincidence, that the boatman’s mother also received some thumps from him, and she got wet too.

Well, these two guys was actually on the same boat, same vessel we love so much and call our motherland. Anything can happen here, don’t get surprised. Just keep your tongue ready, it will weasel you out.

After June Hiatus

Well, not too unhappy to spend my time experimenting, discussing and developing conversation in Sachalayatan [সচলায়তন] . It’s a splendid experience, to see something dear grow, and participate in the process of letting it grow, trimming and pruning, adding and padding, trying to fine tune, trying to put finesse, and to share these activities with a lot of people from almost every continent [Sorry South America, we missed you and Antarctica too].

Sachalayatan is a moderated blogging community, raising its pennant on the mast on 1st of July, 2007. The word moderation doesn’t sound very hospitable, I do agree, but works well when the community shares the values, icons of reverence and agrees on taboos.

The method of “invitaion from an invitee” is being followed in Sachalayatan. Members are asked to invite people they consider “fit” for blogging in Sachalayatan. After registration, the registrant is usually requested to wait a few days, for some reasons not to be disclosed, and queued for Account Activation. A visitor might always register and start waiting, but user invitation expedites the process of activation. The heaviest reference is considered to be the existing blog of the registrant, which could reflect him or her better than anything else.

Over these three weeks, Sachalayatan was busy being visited from 40 countries around the world. It’s nice to see Bangla speaking people taking interest into visiting a new Community Blogging Platform. The bloggers are already engaged in warm debates, proposing new ideas on umpteen different subjects, and the very first Online Bangla Comic Strip is being launched there.

Stay Tuned.

Valerie, you are not alone

Valerie Taylor spent her youth begging for us. I do not know how many times she had been refused or insulted, forced to stifle tears, had to return with empty hands and heavy heart from doors. She begged for the poor crippled people she took under her wings. She begged for some space to house her patients, she begged for funds for treatment and rehabilitation, she begged for empathy for the ill-fated human beings who were physically impaired and had none to go to other than Valerie.

Valerie Taylor came to Bangladesh in 1969. She had to leave Bangladesh when war broke out in 1971, but came back in mid-war to treat the affected people. From then on she devoted her life for physically impaired  people,  mostly from the poorest  end of the spectrum,  doing everything  for them  within and beyond the reach of Physiotherapy. She was granted the citizenship of Bangladesh in 1998. She adopted crippled children, she provided jobs for her patients who would have to depend on others’ mercy had there been no Valerie.

Valerie literally gave birth to CRP in 1979,  and was given two cement stores in Sohrawardi  Hospital  to house her setup. It grew, thanks to her effort, to one of the biggest organization for physiotherapy in Asia, devoted to the poors in Bangladesh who can not walk for a couple of paces. People with injured backbone, impaired legs, numb body come crawling and limping to Valerie. Valeries heart rushes to people who could help, and often return crawling and limping, injured by the  indifference.

Valerie Taylor treated thousands of bodies and hearts. As a reward to her contribution, she is literally being kicked out from the organization she built over the years.

Shafi Sami, an ex-bureaucrat of high profile, is now reported to be steering CRP to a direction of sophistication.  Patients from now on would have to pay if they want themselves to be treated. Valerie A. Taylor has been exempted from any executive duty, had been stripped of any authority that could be asserted to guide the funds. CRP is becoming a place where poors are not welcome. Soon they will not be patients any more, they will only be poor people like the Prevalerian era.

I am ashamed of what has been being done to enfeeble Valerie, for snatching away the organization she built for sheer profiteering, for using her as an icon and then throwing her to the dumps.

I want to see Valerie Taylor taking charge of her brainchild. I want to see CRP as it were. I want to see the Borghee plunderers, who run this organization for milking out profits, relieved off their duty. Donors are requested to check the current status of  CRP as a humanitarian organization.

Valerie Taylor is old, is tired, is being hounded by looting bureaucrats who draw a salary 33 times more than her, but she is not alone. We, the People, will stand in rank and file for her.