Posted on by jartrob

All My Bags Aren’t Packed….

…and I’m not quite ready to go. The AUW shuttle will pick me up in 90 minutes to take me to the airport. My stuff seems to have multiplied in the dark while I slept. How will all of it fit in my one suitcase?

I’ll leave that disaster until the last minute. At least it’s a choice.

Random photos with pithy captions (or not). Goodbye, Bangladesh. I hope to come back.

Concrete portal to nature in the Chittagong Railway Colony.
Rickshaw wallah down the road from the Asian University for Women.
Family portrait. Mural outside the Chittagong University School of Fine Arts.
Mural outside the Chittagong University Business School. I think they could have left out the (questionable) middle sentiment and still made their point.
Painful story. Who will succeed? Public art outside the Chittagong Zoo.
Professor in his panjabi (a gift from his wonderful students) next to evidence of grade inflation.
Last day of class. They gave me a panjabi. I bought them pizza. Life is not fair.
It must have its reasons.
Many surfaces at the ISKCON temple in Chittagong. Haribol.
Cool, graceful hallway at the Bangladesh Railways building. Chittagong.
Obliging couple on oldest train in Bangladesh. As my friend M.K. Jatra pointed out, “It’s good that they didn’t have to change the initials from ‘British Railways’ to ‘Bangladesh Railways’.” Not sure what they did for the 24 years as East Pakistan.
Anglo-Indian architecture at Railway office.
Enormous trees covering cricket game at outdoor performance space in the heart of Chittagong. Such a beautiful city.
Murals everywhere, this time at the Fine Arts complex at the Chittagong University urban campus.
More murals near the Asian University for Women. Heartening use of public space.
Foy’s Lake, a reservoir-turned-amusement park in the center of Chittagong. A man from the public-relations arm of this amusement park videotaped me making an endorsement. I observed that “The nature is everywhere.” My sincerest apologies to the people of Bangladesh.
Documentary film-making students at AUW, interviewing me about the effect of violent video games on children. I hope my response–that there isn’t a direct line between gun violence and video games, but there seems to be a dreadful desensitizing effect of watching constant casual violence on young (and old) minds–did their project justice.

POST SCRIPT:

From the tarmac at the Chittagong airport. Thank you, Bangladesh.

I’m home, exhausted. Are humans meant to travel half-way around the world in 36 (and then some) hours? How can we make sense of the barrage of impressions?

Glad to have ice cubes in my potable water; miss the sounds from the loudspeakers outside the mosque near my apartment in Chittagong.

Sat next to Christian missionaries on the flight from Doha to Seattle who are helping to feed the war-torn, dispossessed people of Ukraine; they refused to wear masks on the plane despite the constant, gentle reminders of the flight attendants.

Grateful for my home and for Dennis and the ungrateful, mysterious cats.

Thanks for listening.

Wise cat, making the most of a cool, granite surface in a park in sweltering Dhaka.

12 Replies to “All My Bags Aren’t Packed….”

  1. Welcome home from an amazing teaching and learning experience.
    I’m concerned about the title of this episode, though. I think you actually meant “NOT all my bags are packed.” Surely SOME of your bags were packed when you wrote this.

  2. What a beautiful trip! I loved seeing the pictures (although I missed you terribly)!

  4. Welcome home Jim!
    Perhaps we should set-up an audio system outside your window to play morning Adhan at first light to help you ease back into things?

  5. Thank you for sharing your experience–the pictures, your writing, your panjabi—it was all perfect. Welcome home!

  6. Welcome home Jim and thank you for letting us ride along. I’m in Manchester England England boarding the “Transpennine Express” – it’s a lot less grand than it sounds – asking myself the same questions about dragging myself around the planet.

    1. Craig! Wonderful to hear from you…sorry I missed you when you were in the cities. Any chance you’ll be back here soon? I’ll buy you a Persian meal. Stay in touch!

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