short (real) stories from Bangladesh...

- The driver had just asked the young coworker (that amongst his duties has hanging out of the door and shout at people to inform where the bus is going!... and help passengers jump on the moving vehicle!!) to check the front tyres cause he heard a noise.

Nothing.. the careless boy gets back on and the driver carries on pushing on his gas pedal with the usual strenght till the third gear (luckily), then a huge blast and the bus that goes little skidding till the he manages to brake it on the side of the road few metres away from some big trees that here work as guard rail and the rice fields just a metre or so below the level of the pavement...

I was sitting just in the front seat just actually above the tyre that exploded and I was the closest to tree if only he had managed to reach the fourth gear!!... little panic in the back of the bus, but in two minutes they all squeezed in another, crowded, bus coming from behind, after having fought to collect the 40 taka (50 eurocent) fare back ..

Only the driver was left and he just looked after me getting me on the next bus coming, that was actually empty and little better quality than the previous two..

I was on my way to a small village closer to the border with the West Bengal province of India and 150 kilometres away from Kolkata, where a huge banyan tree attracts young and older people for pictures...

a couple chilling on one of the roots of the banyan tree...

for the police records...

- "Do you have internet?" I asked the restaurant owner, yes, he smiles and he shows me the five lines of signal reception on his smartphone, the 3G connection is the very big thing here now as well as phones (everybody has got one or more than one!!) and routers providing wifi to share are nearly impossible to find...I struggled with it in the last few days, I managed to find a good one for few hours in a very dark restaurant/bar where young couple meet far from people's (or their parents) eyes and gossip, a very strange dodgy looking place, in a five storey building basement, playing romantic Bangla songs on the large flat screen tv with western and chinese menu...

I get very surprised looks and sneering when (usually it's the third question after "what is your name" and "what is your country") I reply "not married/alone/single!!" to the "are you married?"!!! "Yes it's possible" I say to convince them!!... and they smile!!!

Bangladesh is a muslim country and it feels so indeed, mainly from the few women seen around the streets, no as many calls of prayers coming out of mosques, no many men walking around holding hands...

As I am writing this post there is a little earthquake and we all walk down in the parking level of the 6-7 floors building (my couchsurfing host home) I find myself in, and that's where I have seen as many women altogether as never so far..we are back up after 3 minutes!!!

a little bit the contrary of what I have just written..

- It's elections days in Dhaka (and Chittagong) and my new Bangla friend told me that the city needs two mayors, one for the northern part and one for the southern; there are 70 councils and one woman and one man per council running for the two spots!!

The city is full of A3 papers in black and white with political campaigns messages, I can only understand the picture and the symbol that each candidate has, from the national fish (hilsa) to the kite, from the telescope to the chicken cage!!... as in Sri Lanka, if you remember, to help the illiterate to understand who to vote...

Now my question is, in our countries (so called developed!!) we don't have symbols, for candidates, as we sell ourselves as literate and educated , but how it's possible that politics is still bullshit??!!!
How is possible that we still allow someone just sly and possibly slimy to sell us words like democracy, like rights and economy without real meaning it, why do we still allow these mostly liers being to use the word corruption when they are lobbists themselves..
Let's make politics moneyfree and powerfree and let's see what happens...

vote for the "spinning top" candidate...

- It's a cloudy and rainy and little thunderstom and earthquakes here and there day in Dhaka; tomorrow is my flight and I have decided not to go to the day trip to a small old village nearby as planned, I believe I can survive without it...maybe I will go to market or maybe I will just do nothing and enjoy the fresh air that the rain is taking with...
In the balcony outside of my room a man made pigeon house as I have seen many so far in Bangladesh; some people keep them as outdoor pets or for recreational purpose only and uncaged, others instead (caging them) have them (cooked...) in different spices...

pigeon town....