Shopaholic Hits Dhaka...
Ok... So "Shopaholic" might be pushing things abit... As all my family & good friends and my Junior should know... I'm not much of a shopper... I can't shop for very long periods of time and I don't shop for a lot of things...
I'm a targeted shopper in a sense... That means, when I shop, I must have a targeted item in mind... Jeans or a nice tee shirt or a bag or a pair of sandals or a book... (That's the normal shopping list... Most of the time, my shopping list looks more like: books, stationery, movie vcds, expensive silver things that no one else would think of buying...) Very general objectives but they give me an idea of what I need and what I am looking for... It also gives me the cue to stop when I have met that objective...
That sounds like how boys shop!
Well... Not really... I do know of certain guys who actually enjoy shopping... So there goes the stereotype... But if we talk about the rest of the guys who hate shopping.. I don't shop like them at all... They walk into a shop, see what they want, buy it and go home... I know what I want... But i still need to compare... and browse... And I do make detours when there are nice clothes or something in the window of another shop... I just need to get into the mood of shopping by starting with something in mind... If I dun get what I had in mind to buy... then it might carry over to the next shopping trip...
I'm weird, I know... So sue me...
Yesterday though, I was really in the mood to shop... I went out with the objective of buying a punjabi... At least 1 punjabi top... Otherwise, like I told Jessica, I wouldn't go back to Pathshala... I was a woman with a mission...
Jess & I went to the shops that Shalini recommended us to go... The first one was a shop called Banglar Mela... they even have their own website! http://www.banglarmela.org The prices, we were told, are fixed and the quality is good... So it seemed like a pretty safe place for us to shop at on our own... On top of that, it's just along Mirpur Road and very near Pathshala...
My goodness! It's a really nice place to shop at! There was quite a good range of Saris and Punjabis and Sawas... Even shawls to keep warm... Jessica found a Punjabi for her boyfriend... And a nice white top for herself... I got a full Punjabi suit! With the top, a scarf and pants... The top is a very nice modern print.... Blue, black & white... The scarf is white with a blue print border... And the pants are just white... It cost Tk980!! Which is about S$32... Not too shabby right? I was quite proud of that buy... Later on I bought another shawl! A nice huge maroon one... It's really warm & only cost Tk250! There was this other sawa that I saw... Tk300.. A bright red one... But decided not to buy it... cos I wanted to see the other shops first...
Later on, Jess & I went to another shop that Shalini recommended... It's called Nipun and they also had very nice clothes... But it's more expensive than Banglar Mela... I saw a very nice shawl there... Black with nice little blue flower prints... But there was a run in it and it was the last piece... So I didn't get it.. (That was before I bought the red shawl at Banglar Mela)... Jessica bought a very nice black bag from there though.... Cos her white one is turning black... I got a nice little bracelet from Nipun... cost Tk45...
So after shopping for several hours, I spent a grand total of S$40 and bought a whole new outfit! Believe me, controlling my spending was a big challenge... I may not be great at shopping... but i have a terrible problem... It's called expensive taste... It happened several times! I can be looking at a shelf of punjabis with an average price of Tk700-800... And the ones that I like and pick out... are the ones that cost Tk900-1000... Then when I was looking at the shawls at Nipun, the average price of those were aboutTk300... And the one I picked out was Tk600!! I had to convince myself that I can't spend so much money... So I started to limit myself to the not so expensive stuff...
After the shopping, Jess & I went to a little cafe called Sausly's to sit down, eat some finger food and have a coke... It was amazing to sit there and rest... We were both tired... And then there were these three little beggar boys who were having a lot of fun outside the door... We were so amused by them that Jess wanted to take their pictures... She took two pictures and we gave them each Tk2.... Very very cute...
Tomorrow is Eid... So when we were out on the streets, there were cows and goats being sold or being driven by their new owners... Some were wearing bright ribbons and things... And with more animals around, there's more poop around too... Jess & I saw a cow pee as it was being driven along... the pee made a long swiggly pattern on the road... haha! Never seen that before... Many ppl were also selling these sacks of grain... I figured it's cow feed... We couldn't imagine how the slaughter would be done... the cows were so huge! Jess & I had had the privilege of patting some smaller goats... They look so cute and everything! I actually suggested that Jess & I buy a baby goat for ourselves... We could keep that one alive for another few more months... before we leave and it gets slaughtered anyway... sigh...
And just for interest sake... Animals are not the only ones that pee on the road.... If you ever come here and see a man squatting at the side of the road... don't be alarmed... He's peeing... Dun ask me how they can do it... I guess... When you gotta go... you gotta go... =)
Eid Festival
This is just gonna be a short one to let you all back home know what's coming up here...
It's the Eid Festival... Where the Muslims here slaughter animals in remembrance of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac(or Ishmael rather) and how God stopped him... (My dear cell... I hope you know this story well... Sulih dear... Time for bible quiz... haha!) Yes... It is rather interesting how close Islam's Koran is to the Bible... But, I assure you, the two religions are very very different...
For the locals, it's a time to pack themselves into buses and head to their villages for the festival... However, I do know of some who are not gonna do that... They are just going to slaughter here in Dhaka...
For us foreigners, it's a four day holiday starting tomorrow... The Eid also means that the shops will be closed, the streets will be quiet (save for the occasional slaughter which i hear takes place on the streets), and there would be no place for us to eat cos everything is closed... Hmm... Quite an exciting holiday eh?
Oh well... Hope we will be able to scrounge up some food... =)
The one with the happy tidings…
Before I start, you must tell me what you think this blog is about…
A promotion? Yeah right…
A raise? I wish…
More work? Can you be more imaginative?
A new buy? Quite possible… But no…
Give up? This blog is centred around marriage! =)
No…I have NOT found myself a Bangladeshi Boyfriend and I have NOT eloped with him behind my parents’ backs, and I have NOT gotten myself pregnant with a Bangladeshi baby who will be born in Singapore when I’m in the midst of my exams…. (That one is for my dear friends back home who have the most exciting imaginations… My cousin Darren is one of them…)
And it would be nice if this blog was actually about my own sister’s wedding… But, as seeing how I have spent so little time at home lately and now know very little about her wedding plans… I figured I should leave that bit out… But I will definitely blog about her wedding in March… When I get home to broadband and price tags that don’t ever hit $100… So stay tuned for that one….
Ok… So who’s marriage are we talking about?
It’s not any particular couple actually… It’s about this trend I noticed around here… People here marry very young!!
Perhaps it’s just the people who work here… Most, if not all, of the people here in Drik are married or are married with children… No matter whether they are good-looking or not… They are all married! (And they all have very darling and good-looking children for that matter…) I’ll give a few examples… Not gonna talk about everyone in Drik, but just my favourite people…
Like my boss Reza… He’s married… Though no kids yet… He’s really suave and very good looking… Interestingly, I think he looks better now than he did a few years back… (saw some pictures).. One of the lucky few who look better as they age… (Like my daddy!)
Atiq, my friendly giant with the pleasant disposition, he’s married, and has a very handsome tall son… I have to mention tall cos the boy looks way older than he is… He takes after his dad in height… Atiq also has a darling little girl who has really cute curls and adores him to no end!
Tutul, much more senior than most of us, about 40… Married with two very young sons… They started having kids much later I guess… The younger one is only six months old! The older one, Raiyan is very chatty and friendly…
Siraj, the multimedia team leader with the Japanese wife… Guess that says pretty much everything… Except that his wife just gave birth to a 2.5kg baby boy on Monday night! He was so excited he came to office the next day with sweet desserts for everyone!
Nazrul, from library, with the nice greenish eyes… He looks very striking because of his eyes… And he's very young… He’s my Er Jie’s age… And he’s married too! His wife is only 20… So they won’t be having children until his wife finishes school…
According to my very neutral source Rajib (he’s 28 and not even close to getting married), most of the marriages here are arranged by the family…And only a few are love marriages… I dunno… I find it a strange arrangement… Arranged marriages… I know it happens… But I’m not used to that idea… Guess that comes from my upbringing in Singapore where all marriages are love marriages…
But anyway, I asked Rajib why he wasn’t married… He said it’s cos he doesn’t look good… I dun believe that… I think he looks way better than some other people in Drik (those I didn’t mention) and those people are married… I didn’t tell him that though… cos according to him, his family had tried to arrange a few marriages for him, but no girl wanted him… Ouch! Personally, I think they’re blind… He’s such a nice guy… A little on the soft spoken side… But such a sweet guy!
It’s not to say that love marriages are totally dead here…just may not be quite so popular with the older folk… Shalini’s friend Rokon, who is about 25 and working in his own little advertising firm is married… It was a love marriage and his wife’s family refused to recognize it… So his wife still stays with her family and not with him… Last I heard, I think they are going to elope! Seriously! I’m not kidding!
Oh well… As much as I love attending weddings…(They make me feel so happy for the couple and very hopeful and positive about my own in future…) I am very uncomfortable with the idea of marrying so young! I once had a really terrible nightmare, when I was here in Dhaka… I dreamt that my ex boyfriend proposed to me and I agreed to marry him…
You must be wondering why it was a nightmare… Let me explain… The person I was to marry was not my boyfriend… only a good friend… At the time, I did not have any boyfriend... So in my dream, I was preparing for my wedding… My relatives were coming to me congratulating me on my getting married and asking who it was that I was marrying! That’s quite terrible isn’t it? Then I started questioning myself… “Why am I getting married? I'm not ready to spend the rest of my life with anyone!" I even said… “Why am I getting married at 21? I’m too young to get married!”
That’s when I woke up…
I concluded a few things about that dream…
1) I should not be hasty when I get proposed to… Especially when the person proposing isn’t even my boyfriend… Even if it means being left on the shelf…
2) I must be very clear why I am getting married when I do… And know what I am getting myself into… the commitment needed is for a LIFETIME…(I’m a commitment phobe btw..)
3) I must not get married when I am still so young and have no idea what I really want… And do not even have the ability to support myself… much less a family….
Ok… So it seems like I am thinking too much about marriage… But I’m not really… It’s just that there are far too many divorces in Singapore nowadays… And I really don’t want to be another statistic… Also, you can’t help thinking a bit about it when you look around you, and the people who should be studying in school with you, are married too… Hmm… Still can’t imagine any of my classmates getting married….
Goethe Institut
So much for having a slow night...
As soon as I finished that blog about the field day... I had another little adventure... Shalini came and asked me to go for an exhibition with her...
It was an exhibition of a few photography students who had taken part in a workshop conducted by a very famous female photographer... I can't remember her name right now... I was keen to go because I knew some of the photographers... One was Nazrul, the other was Prince... I especially wanted to see Prince's work because Jess & I had helped to edit his copy...
The exhibition was at the Goethe Institut... Just for information sake, the Lonely Planet book is wrong... At least the 2000 version that I have... In the book, Goethe Institut is in actual fact... Rifles Square... A FAMOUS LANDMARK! Such a terrible mistake! I found out because I was trying to locate Rifles from the map and found Goethe Institut in it's place... On top of that, Atiq mentioned that Goethe was not even near there... It was much nearer to Pathshala...
Now I even know where Goethe Institut is... Cos we walked there from Pathshala... It's just further south of Mirpur Road... "Take that! Lonely Planet!"
The exhibition hall (room actually) is very nice! When we arrived, the person who's in charge of Goethe was giving a speech... Then afterwards, our Big Boss gave a speech... When that was done, we got to see the pictures...
Seriously, I think most of them need some form of copy editting... The English was really really bad! It's the translators' fault... The photographers wrote their copy in Bengali and got it translated... Good grief! I think it might have spoilt the effect of the pictures...
I like the pictures though... They were very well taken... Whether or not the pictures told the story and whether the copy fitted together is another thing altogether... I think Shyam(my sup) would have told them to go reshoot or choose other pictures to make it go with the story... But they(the photographers) did everything themselves and even managed to fit their stories into the theme of "Resistance"...
I was very proud of them... =)
And for a final note, I really like the rooftop of the Goethe Institut. That's where they were serving refreshments after the exhibition... It was very breezy and nice... Like Arabella said... It's very surreal... (Arabella is one of the two new ladies who have come to Pathshala... She's the one with the assignment... The other one is Diya, the assistant-with-a-mouth-piercing...)
And so with tea(as usual) and cookies, we concluded that trip to the exhibition at Goethe Institut...
Field Day...
I think I accomplished quite a lot today... Ironically, not in the office... In fact, I'm already back in Pathshala... Surprised? Read on...
Had a bad day today... In the morning at least... Woke up with a headache and was feeling very tired... There wasn't much to do in the studio because the gallery (where we were supposed to shoot the big items) was booked for another exhibition... It's more like a clothing sale... Very fancy clothes and dresses... Jess & I got a sneak preview... It's way expensive!
Something really funny happened at the Studio though... I was sitting in there waiting for the shoot to start... There are these two guys who are in charge of the products... Really nice people... What happened was... Once of them was on the phone... The other standing very close behind... The passage where they were, was rather small because of all the chairs and things lying around... Moin came in and walked between the two guys... The one who was behind stepped backwards, found no place to step on, and fell backwards on to one of the chairs. He nearly fell off the chair too! And it happened right in front of me! The guy and I couldn't stop laughing!! That was the only thing that made me stop feeling sad for a while...
You must be wondering why I wasn't working... I mean, I'd stopped being a slacker hadn't I?
There was some work to do... With regards to the projects that the Big Boss had talked to Jess & I about... The unpleasant thing is this other guy who is supposed to be working on these projects together with us... And believe me... I have a bone to pick with this person... He's been assigning Jess & I work to do when he doesn't know what the project is about... He never even read the proposals that the Big Boss emailed to the three of us... He gave us all the work that he was supposed to do, and continued with the report he's been working on for the last two months! After he gives us the work, he tells us we must get the work done quickly because there is a deadline.... Thanx a lot for being incompetent!
There's a lot more bad air about this guy but i'm going to stop here... I'm just going to say that since Jess & I were expected to work with him, our work morale has dipped to an all time low... At least, Jess & I can work on our own without his help... Not that he was any to begin with... I'm proud to say that I still did my work... Even if I was feeling miserable... Atiq's music helped... I categorically refused to work in the same room as that horrible man and went back to my familiar place... Publications... Atiq is such a nice guy... and the music he plays makes you happy too! Bryan Adams... Never appreciated his music until now...
Faced with that unpleasant working partner... And the horrible headache.. and the fact that there was little to be done in the studio and I had no laptop to do work on, I got really depressed... Again... Kept feeling miserable until Jess finally got me to go down for tea with her... (Tea sort of saved the day again)... We had tea... Then went out to the mini store just outside drik...(Drik property too..) First time I went there... I love it... It's really cute... We bought a butter cake... (Now that I mentioned it... It's in Drik's fridge... Oh well...) Then Jess said she wanted to buy stationery... I knew where the place is in theory... Siraj told me about it... So, armed with that little bit of knowledge about the place, Jess & I went to explore...
And we found the place! It's a shopping centre called Shankar Plaza. There isn't much there, but there are a few stationery shops.... And we found a cyber cafe with broadband connection! cost Tk25 per hour! And they open 7 days a week! You know what's the best part? There is this little clothing shop with very nice punjabis costing about Tk400 and Tk500... And the designs were really quite nice! Jess & I are so going back there to buy some clothes... I already saw an outfit I liked...
And if you think that's all the things we did today? You got another think coming... When we got back to the office, Jessica received a little receipt from the office... It was the parcel her family had sent her... Or at least, it was a little notification that her parcel had arrived... We had to go down all the way to the General Post Office in Motijheel(The economic centre of Dhaka) to pick it up... It's a half an hour journey by CNG or cab... If there is no traffic jam...And if we didn't go and get it in two days, it would get thrown out or get lost during the long holidays coming up this weekend...
So Jess, Shalini & I left work early to pick up the parcel... It took forever to get a cab... We couldn't even get one... We got a CNG instead... The trip there was quite ok... The journey was really half an hour... Jess & I tried to follow where we were... Using the outdated map in the lonely planet book... We gave up after a while... But the CNG driver knew the place well... And He got us to the place safely... The GPO was chaotic... It's a good thing we had asked Faruk for advice about the place beforehand and we managed to find the department quickly... The place looked a mess! And everyone was directing us everywhere else! Good grief! Thank goodness this man came along... He knew exactly what to do and helped Jess out... The whole procedure didn't take too long... and we were out of the GPO in about twenty minutes... Didn't even get asked for a bribe! Shalini said it was faster because we were foreigners...
The streets there were really really chaotic! The cars there were even more fierce and frightening than the ones on Mirpur Road... There were also a lot more beggars and they were more persistent than the ones we get here at Dhanmondi... There were plenty of street stalls selling nice shawls and clothes... But the place was so messy and plus Jess was carrying a parcel... We just wanted to get away as quickly as possible... It didn't seem too safe for the three of us to explore on our own... We found a cab on the street in the middle of a red light and hopped on back to Pathshala...
So that's why I'm here writing this blog... After that experience at the GPO... I think I'll know what to expect when my parcel from home arrives in two weeks... Right now, I actually want to go explore the shopping on Mirpur road again... (The Motijheel eperience made me appreciate the "peace & quiet" over here more)...And I want to see that Shankar Plaza shop again... But I think... I need to sleep... I don't really want to get another "Matha Batha" or headache tomorrow... I still have to work with that annoying guy... And I'm gonna need my wits and strength...
Look who's working now!!
Hahaha! I'm working!
We started work on the catalog yesterday... Shooting the products in the studio. I was the “art director”... that's what my boss introduced me as... It just means that I help to give opinions and ideas for the arrangements. As a sort of proof that I was doing work, Amin took pictures of my doing some arrangements.. too bad he didn’t manage to catch the moments when I stuck my tongue out at him for doing something so silly…
It's really like some fashion shoot... the way we fuss over every detail and how everything must look perfect... eg. the fruits had to be treated with mustard oil to make them look fresher... the stems had to be freshly cut before every scene so that everything looks fresh... even the flowers had to be carefully chosen... but we let up sometimes... when the flowers dun look all that great... my boss says it's ok... that can be edited in the photoshop afterwards...
With all this fuss, it's just like how my sister had her wedding shoot... ok.. so my models were little containers and vases and such... but you know... same thing...
You wanna know what’s cool about the whole photo shoot? We used food… To put in the containers… and you know what happens to the food after the shoot? We eat them! (The eatable ones of cos..) I had cake, puffed rice balls, popcorn, and a strange fruit… this fruit that grows inside a coconut... once the coconut started sprouting a plant… smells and tastes just like coconut oil... chewy… can’t get used to it…. My boss and everyone likes to make jokes... Eg. Make you eat something that isn't edible or nice or something... So the rule of the thumb is, I only eat what I see them eating...
Work finished about six... and the rest of the guys stayed later... to do more shoots... My boss joked and said he'd dock one hour worth of my pay... then i told him i wasn't getting paid... haha! Now seriously, my boss is a really funny guy... Recently, he had taken to not translating everything he says to me... It used to be that he'd speak English to me and jess and Bengali to everyone.. Now, it's Bengali to everyone else and me! Just because I once guessed correctly what he was saying to Shalini.. And come on... anyone could have guessed that one... He had gotten his tea... then came back in again and said something about "chini"(sugar).. what would you think? He was asking for more sugar for his tea! From then on, he's convinced he must help me understand Bengali...
The other people in my department are really cool too... Atiq has been doing funny things like cluck his tongue so that it makes a loud sound... and snapping his fingers at my face... I'd been trying to do them back... but the clucking sound i make is really pathetic compared to his... Yup... Now you know what really goes on in a photoshoot... that was just during the in between moments when my boss and the photographer Moin are in deep discussion about the lighting... Not that we don't help... but we try not to get in the way... And besides... we're very good at holding reflectors and table cloths for the shoots... I think table cloth holders and reflector holders should not say too much in case you distract the photographer.. what do you think?
Here's the other accomplishment that I think I have to mention… Jess and I have gotten more and more independent with every trip out on our own.. We've been going out on our own to go shopping and changing money and looking for food... We'd explored a large part of mirpur road on our own already.. that's the major road... and dhanmondi 27.. the road leading to mirpur from Drik.... and of cos panthapath... the road outside Pathshala... Yesterday, we went looking for a very highly recommended bookstore... It wasn't all that great... didn't have a lot of stuff... I wanted to buy a thin book... imported... about poetry... it cos 9.99 pounds... and do you know how innocent that sounds?? it costs over Tk1000!! That's insane!!! I know that's S$30 but I still don't like the idea of paying over a thousand dollars on any book... whatever currency it is... I'm getting the book from Borders...
There's one more thing... The three of us have started sitting three to a rickshaw now... It's really fun and it saves us a lot of money... This is how it works... The person sitting at the top gets on first, sits on the backing of the seat (it's thick enough and sturdy)... The next person sits between the legs of the top person and the last one squeezes in the seat... It's easier than it sounds... and you get a great view at the top! I really like sitting on top now... The only thing is... with no cushioning, it really hurts the behind when the rickshaw goes over a pothole.. Not as bad as the poor rickshaw driver who has to move us all...
So yup... that's the report of yesterday... gotta go for breakfast now... I'm late for work!
