Spring in Dhaka
The 13th of February was the first of Spring or First Falgun. The cold spell is finally over and all the lovely sweaters and long sleeved shirts that came in my parcel are officially unwearable. According to the Headmistress of Surovi, ladies wear bright yellow or orange saris on this day. Indeed, many of the ladies were wearing bright yellow and orange saris that day. Even Rayhana, Mothi’s wife. Really livened up the place.
But neither the scorching sun nor the bright yellow saris were any match for the one thing (or person rather) that arrived together with Spring… My sister… It’s very exciting when you see someone you love right in front of you… Especially when you haven’t seen her for the past one month… She arrived in her bright pinks and her warm smiles… The first thing she said to me was “Wow! I can’t tell if you you’ve gained or lost weight.” (It’s a good thing cos I have a wedding to attend in just over a month’s time…)
With her, came lots of perks. She brought me two pairs of slippers, one that I always wore back home and a new pair that my mother bought for me! She brought food, tons of food, my favourite white bag and some more clothes… Noyon got a nice stuffed toy too (Which he dirtied immediately)…Think I got too much stuff… Going to go down to Drik one day and give presents… There’s one thing I’m not sharing though… The box of homemade pineapple tarts that my mother freshly baked before my sister left… It is such a joy and comfort to have that to eat…
That was quite a nice start to Spring… Another nice start to Spring was the welcome I’d been getting at Surovi… I’d started visiting the home of Tumpa, one of the sweetest, and cleverest girls in class 8… Her mother thinks of me as a daughter! Haha! I’d been showered with food and snacks and flowers by the other kids in school… The teachers have been very friendly and invited me to have tea with them… My sister asked me to bring them down to the school cos she liked the pictures I took of them… We’re going tomorrow…
Jess & I also rediscovered Hopscotch yesterday… She got a sudden urge to play it… So we ran to buy chalk, asked Joseph for permission to draw on the floor, (promising with all our heart that Noyon would not get his hands on any chalk) and we started playing… It’s surprisingly fun! We made all sorts of silly rules to make it more difficult… It’s great exercise too!
There have been some unpleasant things though… I burnt a dustbin by accident… I’m not a smoker, no good with fire and had always listened to my teachers to not play with matches… Until curiosity got to me yesterday… I was absolutely guilt-stricken about the dustbin… Mothi was just pleasantly amused… Must have thought… “What was this silly Singaporean thinking??”… I made Jess take away my matches in case I burnt something else…
On V Day, someone at Drik professed his love for me… Which totally freaked me out… So disgusted that I don’t want to mention his name ever! I had absolutely no interest in that person or any other person here… Never will too… Don’t even know how he got the idea that I like him… I only talk to the guy at work… Never anywhere else… It’s not even like I knew him very long… What was that guy thinking???
And I’d started to see a side of the people here that I never saw before… People here have two faces and I’d only been seeing one… The other one is really not quite so pleasant… It’s their inner self… The complicated one with lots of weird ideas… The side that makes you realize that you can’t quite trust them…
I was quite upset to learn about such things… Very upset in fact… Jess & I were utterly disappointed… I’m very trusting by nature and I like to think that I can trust people… When even that is not possible, it just seems so upsetting… I don’t understand why people can’t be simple and honest and trustworthy… Call me naïve or idealistic… Simplicity is the easiest and most pleasant way to live…
Don’t worry… I’m ok now… Got over the initial shock and I’m learning to change the way I do things… It’s taught me not to take things at face value and to be very careful about people I meet and how I talk to them and treat them… I realized that this knowledge has started to make me a little more critical… (Not cynical though… I’d hate to be cynical at 22…) Critical in assessing the things people say and do and exploring possibilities of an alternate meaning or motive… Think that would come in handy wherever I go… I’ll bet people who are in the corporate world are just as two faced and complicated…
Even then, I think I still look out for a glimmer of hope… I read somewhere that hope is the denial of reality… Perhaps… But I think real hope comes when you have considered reality… Have I considered the reality of the people here? Yes… For a full week while this whisper was silenced… Do I still have hope? Yes… I refused to think that everything had hit rock bottom… I refused to believe that there was no person I could trust any longer… And that my friends could no longer be friends… That’s why this place was quiet… There was a battle within me between the depression of seeing the worst in people and the hope that wanted to come through…
Hope won… That’s why there’s life in this Heart again…
It’s not in people that I’m trusting now… It’s in Jesus… I don’t think I dare to trust anyone here for a while… So I’m trusting in Jesus to bring me through a place that no longer seems quite so friendly… Also learning to depend on myself… (I’m amazed by how independent I can be…)
Perhaps, after trusting in Him, I will find it easier to trust other people again… Within reason of cos… I don’t think I want to have another misunderstanding like that horrible one on V Day… Maybe I could start telling people I’m married and my husband is living with me in Dhaka… (Jessica’s saying that to strangers) Hmm... No… That would be lying… Maybe the next time before I come to Dhaka, I’ll make sure I’m married… Yup…
But neither the scorching sun nor the bright yellow saris were any match for the one thing (or person rather) that arrived together with Spring… My sister… It’s very exciting when you see someone you love right in front of you… Especially when you haven’t seen her for the past one month… She arrived in her bright pinks and her warm smiles… The first thing she said to me was “Wow! I can’t tell if you you’ve gained or lost weight.” (It’s a good thing cos I have a wedding to attend in just over a month’s time…)
With her, came lots of perks. She brought me two pairs of slippers, one that I always wore back home and a new pair that my mother bought for me! She brought food, tons of food, my favourite white bag and some more clothes… Noyon got a nice stuffed toy too (Which he dirtied immediately)…Think I got too much stuff… Going to go down to Drik one day and give presents… There’s one thing I’m not sharing though… The box of homemade pineapple tarts that my mother freshly baked before my sister left… It is such a joy and comfort to have that to eat…
That was quite a nice start to Spring… Another nice start to Spring was the welcome I’d been getting at Surovi… I’d started visiting the home of Tumpa, one of the sweetest, and cleverest girls in class 8… Her mother thinks of me as a daughter! Haha! I’d been showered with food and snacks and flowers by the other kids in school… The teachers have been very friendly and invited me to have tea with them… My sister asked me to bring them down to the school cos she liked the pictures I took of them… We’re going tomorrow…
Jess & I also rediscovered Hopscotch yesterday… She got a sudden urge to play it… So we ran to buy chalk, asked Joseph for permission to draw on the floor, (promising with all our heart that Noyon would not get his hands on any chalk) and we started playing… It’s surprisingly fun! We made all sorts of silly rules to make it more difficult… It’s great exercise too!
There have been some unpleasant things though… I burnt a dustbin by accident… I’m not a smoker, no good with fire and had always listened to my teachers to not play with matches… Until curiosity got to me yesterday… I was absolutely guilt-stricken about the dustbin… Mothi was just pleasantly amused… Must have thought… “What was this silly Singaporean thinking??”… I made Jess take away my matches in case I burnt something else…
On V Day, someone at Drik professed his love for me… Which totally freaked me out… So disgusted that I don’t want to mention his name ever! I had absolutely no interest in that person or any other person here… Never will too… Don’t even know how he got the idea that I like him… I only talk to the guy at work… Never anywhere else… It’s not even like I knew him very long… What was that guy thinking???
And I’d started to see a side of the people here that I never saw before… People here have two faces and I’d only been seeing one… The other one is really not quite so pleasant… It’s their inner self… The complicated one with lots of weird ideas… The side that makes you realize that you can’t quite trust them…
I was quite upset to learn about such things… Very upset in fact… Jess & I were utterly disappointed… I’m very trusting by nature and I like to think that I can trust people… When even that is not possible, it just seems so upsetting… I don’t understand why people can’t be simple and honest and trustworthy… Call me naïve or idealistic… Simplicity is the easiest and most pleasant way to live…
Don’t worry… I’m ok now… Got over the initial shock and I’m learning to change the way I do things… It’s taught me not to take things at face value and to be very careful about people I meet and how I talk to them and treat them… I realized that this knowledge has started to make me a little more critical… (Not cynical though… I’d hate to be cynical at 22…) Critical in assessing the things people say and do and exploring possibilities of an alternate meaning or motive… Think that would come in handy wherever I go… I’ll bet people who are in the corporate world are just as two faced and complicated…
Even then, I think I still look out for a glimmer of hope… I read somewhere that hope is the denial of reality… Perhaps… But I think real hope comes when you have considered reality… Have I considered the reality of the people here? Yes… For a full week while this whisper was silenced… Do I still have hope? Yes… I refused to think that everything had hit rock bottom… I refused to believe that there was no person I could trust any longer… And that my friends could no longer be friends… That’s why this place was quiet… There was a battle within me between the depression of seeing the worst in people and the hope that wanted to come through…
Hope won… That’s why there’s life in this Heart again…
It’s not in people that I’m trusting now… It’s in Jesus… I don’t think I dare to trust anyone here for a while… So I’m trusting in Jesus to bring me through a place that no longer seems quite so friendly… Also learning to depend on myself… (I’m amazed by how independent I can be…)
Perhaps, after trusting in Him, I will find it easier to trust other people again… Within reason of cos… I don’t think I want to have another misunderstanding like that horrible one on V Day… Maybe I could start telling people I’m married and my husband is living with me in Dhaka… (Jessica’s saying that to strangers) Hmm... No… That would be lying… Maybe the next time before I come to Dhaka, I’ll make sure I’m married… Yup…
posted by thebemusedphotog @ 5:34 PM
2 Comments:
Who professed love? Why don't you give us a physical description so we can imagine and hate this creep.
Who is it at Drik do you trust or think of as your friend now>?
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