Chawk Bazar "Iftar-walk", August 2009

29 August 2009

TTL did it again. Thanks again to Shudipto for organising this, and also thanks to so many participants for making this a success.

Tt was such a warm day; and should I mention the massive traffic on the road? Yet, many of us did manage to reach Chawak Bazar in time to catch the busiest hours. The gathering place was at BUET (Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology); not too far from the old part of the city. Our aim was Chawk Bazar, the place known for its Iftar Market during the month of Ramadan. Iftar is what conclusion of day-long fasting ritual.

Iftar is a religious thing. But Iftar market? And Chawk Bazar? Its more like a tradition than anything else. The name of this Iftar market is known to most. Known because of its traditional items; items that make this market unique. Top of the list is the item called "Boro Baper Polay Khay" or literally translated "Eaten by Big Daddy's Son". However weird the name sounds, it is the top-most attraction of this market.

I spent around an hour on the street, while others spent a bit more or less time depending on arrival. Reuters photographer Andrew Biraj was also there; though he wasn't really part of our mostly amateur group.

The Iftar market is on a small piece of road clearing among the densely populated areas of Old Dhaka; adjacent to the southern boundary of Central Jail. Even though this is a small piece land, its important is always prime; and its regularly under the media coverage. We saw cameras and reporters from Ekushey TV there when we were about to return.

It was a nice short photowalk there; covering one of the cultural pieces of Ramadan. We bought some items from the market and left for BUET campus once again. We had a pretty grand Iftar there together. It wasn't just a hunt for photos. It was a warm day and most of us were fasting. Being able to meet a lot of friends, and to share some light moments was worth the effort.


Here are some of the moments captured during the "Iftar-walk".

From Chawk Bazar Iftar Market, Dhaka, August 2009

Transactions........01
Hygiene has always been an issue here..... monetary transactions take priority over cleanliness!!

From Chawk Bazar Iftar Market, Dhaka, August 2009

Transactions........02

From Chawk Bazar Iftar Market, Dhaka, August 2009

Transactions........03

From Chawk Bazar Iftar Market, Dhaka, August 2009

The calling.......01
Whats in a market without some hustle-bustle?..... the old man at the helm of the main attraction "Boro Baper Polay Khay" tries his best to make enough noise...... he has to make sure that his' is the central attraction of the market.....

From Chawk Bazar Iftar Market, Dhaka, August 2009

The display..........
Displays play a big role in the overall marketing...... making the items look succulent is a constant effort......

From Chawk Bazar Iftar Market, Dhaka, August 2009

The grab..........01
Iftar is never complete without the inclusion of dates...... this mainly Middle-eastern fruit has been traditionally associated with Islamic food, especially Iftar

From Chawk Bazar Iftar Market, Dhaka, August 2009

The grab..........02
Sweets were in high demand.......

From Chawk Bazar Iftar Market, Dhaka, August 2009

The scales.........
Keeping to the promise of right measurement has always been under debate...... this issue had appeared in a lot of verses to motivate Muslims to be fair.....

From Chawk Bazar Iftar Market, Dhaka, August 2009

The calling.......02
"Shuti Kabab" is another traditional item being one of the centre-pieces of the Iftar market.........

From Chawk Bazar Iftar Market, Dhaka, August 2009

The grab..........03
Of the sweets that are sold locally, perhaps the most popular is "Jilapi"..... Old Dhaka boasts with some of the most unique "Jilapi" items, including the really big ones on display here........

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............

Streets of Dhaka, December 2008

There's Life on the Streets

Dhaka, Bangladesh
December 2008

After an interesting street photography venture in December 2007, I decided to try my luck once more. Had been struggling with time to do this all throughout the year, but in vain. This December, I was determined and had been able to manage at least some time to make a meaningful portfolio.

December is an exceptional time for Bangladesh; and the December of 2008 was even more extraordinary. Being a sub-tropical country, winter plays a comparatively smaller part in our weather system. December and January are thus a lot different from other months for that fact alone. Eid-ul Azha also was in December of 2008. This was he first real event of the month. December is also the month which got us our freedom during our War of Liberation in 1971. Although our independence was declared in March of 1971, victory was achieved only on 16th December of that year. This event always makes December an exceptional month. The last exceptional event of the month was National Election. This was the first election since 2001. And the most sought after because of many reasons. The country being in the hands of a Caretaker Government for two years, the election played a significant part in the overall socio-economic life.

So, here are some of the captures from December 2008.



Foggy Motijheel........ for several days, Dhaka was blanketed by thick fog during most of the morning hours..... this was taken at the heart of Motijheel Commercial Area on a holiday right after Eid-ul Azha..... roads were mostly empty..... life was yet to go back to normal...... on regular days this place is busy like a fish-market.....



The gloomy face of the Central Bank.... the world economy is in turmoil..... Bangladesh Bank faces stiff challenges in the days ahead to keep the money market in control......



Not yet ready...... a city bus counter is unmanned...... its a holiday; people are not supposed to make a rush that early in the morning....... its a lazy winter morning.......



Newspaper seller......... for streetside micro businesses, its a normal day........ newspapers have buyers on any day, be it a weekday or a weekend......



Still reaching for the skies........ "Balaka" is an important sculpture in the middle of Dilkusha Commercial Area....... it was vandalised by religious zealots some days ago.... the wounds are yet to heal......



37 years of freedom.........01 ......16th December 2008..... freedom was achieved exactly 37 ago...... yet another election is coming up, which is illustrated by the forest of posters hanging over the street...... how the political parties have upheld the national flag over these years can be doubted though........



Urban noise......04 ........walls are being used as tools of advertisement....... but how many are actually turning towards them with admiration can be doubted though........



37 year of freedom.........02....... election posters overshadowing Victory Days flags........



37 year of freedom.........08........ national flags are being sold on Victory Day....... this is the day we take oath to serve the nation...... do we really keep those words, or do they become something like the empty promises made by the politicians over the years?



Election fever...........05...... those election posters have little meaning for some who are not likely to be able to live a better life as a result of the election.....



37 year of freedom.........11...... the spirit of freedom is in all of us..... Victory Day provides us with the spark that we need for a renewed oath....



37 year of freedom.........13...... Victory Day, 2008



Election fever...........10........ National Election of December 2008 is certainly going to have an impact on the businesses of the country.......



Election fever...........11..... for some, life changes very slowly....



Election fever...........14....... no place is out of election campaign.......



Urban noise.........08....... Election Commission set out some rules at the start of 2008 elections; one of those rules was the use of black-and-white posters..... these B&W posters competed for attention with the colourful posters of Bengali movies.... in recent times, typical Bengali movies had failed to attract the audience regularly...... but election is supposed to attract more attention, even though the posters are not colourful........



Urban noise.........09........ Bengali movies, in recent times, have not been able to uphold the cultural values of the population..... they had been under tremendous criticism from all quarters and the pressure to change had been high...... the industry is somewhat heads-down now.....



war and peace.......... for some, the daily struggle starts early...... for others, peace prevails longer....



portrait, Kaptan Bazar........01



facade, chaotic............01



concrete jungle..........01



urban noise...........02....... posters on the wall represent a cultural change of the time....... information displayed in some of today's posters were once considered taboo....... people always had the option of turning away, but the attitude towards them is ever-changing.......



thats good morning for you, but not for everyone...........



drivers of the economy..........01..... this frantic charge is for timely arrival at their jobs...... Bangladesh may be a Third World country, but the economy of this country is heavily dependent on the export-oriented ready-made garments sector, which is driven by the predominantly female workforce......