Tagore on the way to Gopalgonj

I am back from Gopalgonj a little town south for Dhaka. It was a short stay of one week, but what week! The week gave me beautiful memories of green paddy, smiling women’s in colorful Sarees and small children playing around, mostly in the ponds that still had water.

At this time of the year the heat is back in Bangladesh on full time, so are the humidity and the lack of electricity. This three goes hand in hand. And it is not to the favor of the people. It is almost unbearable, already, at daytime. Evenings are still a little cooler, with warm winds from south and hungry mosquitoes. White skin in the evening has extremely attraction on all kinds of insects. I don’t recommend white skin for evenings. Not for day either, white skin easily turns red. Too easily!

Anyhow. I had a great week and besides discovering a lot of new words I also realized that I have to read a Tagore book. Now! Being in the land he, the greatest author of Bangladesh, describes for such a long time and also learning some of his songs (in Bengali, without totally understanding), have been definitely helping me to make up my mind. But it was first through an other great Indian writer (Rohinthon Mistry) I became aware of a poet, an author I did know too little about. In Mistrys book I found some beautiful lines he had borrowed from Tagore:

“...your light is all lit – then where do you go with your lamps? My house is all dark and lonesome, - lend me your light.”
Rabindranath Tagore
Gitanjali

I had a lot of time on the bus (without toilet). Six hours with staring people everywhere is enough to borrow my head in a book and try to escape from this reality. And when the book reality is so intense and fascinating it is not hard to disappear for a while.

For everyone going from western country to somewhere in the Indian subcontinent I recommend reading Rohinthon Mistry’s “A fine balance”. All his books are good, but this one will certainly put things into perspective and sharpen your eyes for the world you are coming to.

Here I lost my way. My way was Tagores and the need of lending light. Right now I feel YWCA of Bangladesh has field me with light, with idealism and hope for a better world. But what will happen when I go home. How long will the light stay? Where will I keep it and how will I maintain it? It is so easy to lose the light and direction. May be that is also a reason I am fearing of leaving this country...

Right now, right here it is enough light to show a long direction, a lot of work and a lot of possible results. And though I fear leaving the country, I also miss home. Look forward to see you all, - in only one month.