Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

A Night-walk in Dhaka with the TTL Buddies
Dhaka, Bangladesh
19-20 March 2009

The big photography exhibition is drawing near. 57 participants, 57 photos. Drik Gallery; 25-29 March 2009. Needed some publicity. One of the most effective ways to publicise is to spread some posters around. Thats what was done. An event was devised. "Through the Lens: Bangladesh" (TTL) group of Flickr organsied this extraordinary event to support yet another great event. It was decided to conduct some postering around Dhaka City. The best time for postering is night. So, we all came out with our cameras at night. It was one crazy event. But one of the most memorable.

We all gathered around Drik Gallery at Dhanmondi between 10-11:00 at night. We had a rickshaw van with us with the posters and glues. We started off after 11:30PM and roamed around Dhanmondi. We were more interested in having a close look at the city at night. This is what we always miss. Everyone of us had a hidden desire to go out with a camera at night. But none of us really managed to do this. And all wanted to be a part of the publicity team for the big exhibition. So, when this crazy event came up, everybody jumped in. We had a total of 26 participants. Shawon Da was the craziest among us; joining us from Sylhet. He finished his office in the afternoon and boarded the bus. A lot of others were ruining their luck for not being able to participate. We missed them too.

From Dhanmondi, we went to the Dhaka University area and did our work there. The last part of the walk was the most interesting. We went to Old Dhaka and found the whole area bustling with activity. This is what is normal for that place. Businesses the works during the early hours and rest of the day they take rest. We ventured into one of the very busy local restaurants and had biriani.

We came back to Dhaka University area again and had "adda" there. Some of us had enough by around 4:15AM. Others waited for the birds to sing.

It was an unforgettable event. Thanks to all the TTL buddies for making this a special success.

Here are some of the glimpses that I was able to capture during this walk.

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

In the name of religion........... I've noticed and snapped this particular deposit box in too many places around the country..... this deposit box concept thrives on the religious sentiment of the population....... the original beneficiaries of this particular deposit box is in Patuakhali, in the south of the country.....

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

12:12AM, Dhanmondi
Duty is pain.......... even though its a duty, sometimes it becomes too much to handle...... especially when its a night shift........

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

12:19AM, Dhanmondi
Goal........... they jumped in front of car headlight....... not quite Ronaldo, but you can't keep them away from being one at the dead of night..... their football was a PET bottle...... but their expressions didn't say they were that unhappy about it......

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

12:40AM, Dhanmondi
Guarding culture......... our culture has many contrasts..... this is what you'll regularly find in a Third World country....... modern concepts like beauty parlours go parallel with traditional concepts like religious gatherings ("waaz mahfil").... one tries to guard the tradition, while the other tries to keep away from reach....

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

01:16AM, Dhanmondi
Tearing through......... the Dhaka City Corporation has its own ways of managing its duties..... the City was never planned at its inception....... all the infrastructure is built as its needed...... this calls for constant civil works in different parts of the City......... here, the road is being dug up at the dead of night....... morning will find the road in total mess........

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

01:47AM, Dhaka Univerity
On the base of freedom........ homeless people spending the night at the base of Raju Memorial........ the sculpture was made as a symbol of people's determination not to let terrorism control us......

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

01:56Am, Dhaka Univerity
The night is still young......... this young man was not feeling as tired as others around him....... something, some thought, kept him awake........

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

02:00AM, Dhaka Univerity
And he had enough............

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

02:08AM, Dhaka Univerity
Freedom is a relative word........ its difficult to imagine what brings freedom to whom....... but one thing is for sure, it brings peace of mind.......

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

02:32AM, Old Dhaka
Priority........ our priorities differ....... and we adapt to situations according to our priorities....... others may consider this difficult or impossible, since the priorities of their lives are different..........

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

02:34AM, Old Dhaka
Bustling..........01
restaurants of Old Dhaka at their busiest....... businesses here come alive at the dead of night...... the people engaged in those businesses dine at these restaurants at the most unusual hours of the day....... but its completely natural here......

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

02:34AM, Old Dhaka
Bustling..........02

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

02:35AM, Old Dhaka
Chicken time......... a chicken is being taken out of the cage for slaughtering...... it would soon be served at the restaurants...........

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

02:37AM, Old Dhaka
Puzzle..........

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

03:24AM, Dhaka University
King of the streets..........

From Dhaka City at Night, March 2009

03:29AM, Dhaka University
Moonrise over Raju Memorial............