"you need to blog more prolifically man"

ok then.

got my mandatory 8 hours sleep between stupid hours.

needed a phone for the ganjside trip

so my gps is finally working... now all i need to do is figure out what the 'India-Bangladesh' datum corresponts to. Datums are approximations of the earths geometry.... yeah the world is round, but theire are different 'standards' for shape that are considered better fits for various hunks of Gods good Earth. Needless to say the default was some random WGS-84 thing ...USA -centric... bless.

Waypoint 1 - phone SIM shop oin kolabagan where i got my Grameen phone sim from....
Waypoint 2 - Bashundara City shopping complex where a bulletproof and rather prehistoric nokia beast was procured. Bashundhara City is like the biggeset mall in the universe, a monument to the market.... the manic's 'Motorcyle Emptiness came to mind'

Culture sucks down words
Itemise loathing and feed yourself smiles
Organise your safe tribal war
Hurt maim kill and enslave the ghetto

Each day living out a lie
Life sold cheaply forever, ever, ever

Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness

Life lies a slow suicide
Orthodox dreams and symbolic myths
From feudal serf to spender
This wonderful world of purchase power

Just like lungs sucking on air
Survivals natural as sorrow, sorrow, sorrow

Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness

All we want from you are the kicks youve given us
All we want from you are the kicks youve given us
All we want from you are the kicks youve given us
All we want from you are the kicks youve given us

Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness

Drive away and its the same
Everywhere death row, everyones a victim
Your joys are counterfeit
This happiness corrupt political shit

Living life like a comatose
Ego loaded and swallow, swallow, swallow

Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness everlasting nothingness

then i promptly forgot about it....

Picked up this rather amazing weekly news publication called 'the probe' i remember someone telling me about it in london. Its startlingluy mature and explores a lot of routes im interested in. Big up to them!


exploting geography i stop off ar dhaka university, specifically the department of geography and environment. It is a magnificent campus. met a bhai that id got to know last year. we started talking like a bunch of old codgers... about the dhaka uni students being more interested in flirting and dating than their work.

what to do?...

prayed asr (late) in the uni masjid, met a bro there from jagganath college, the site of a recent confrontation between student wings. physics student wahey! he knew where my nanis gram was.

dun dun dun

i eventually find a rikshawallah up for taking me home... get hopelessly stuck in traffic and dismount upon seeing a kabab shop.

so this random man sits on my table, he's ordering takeout. we get chatting. he is a local working in the Housing sector, very widely travelled, alumni of dhaka uni's Zooology department. He likes my thesis topic.

smug fug.

Magrib adhan goes off, and im drawn towards kataban mosqujid (known as a publishing hub for religious texts and thoughts) . walk passed polystyrene sculpturer (500tk for something semi 3-D and massive, ready the next day provided you give him a design).

Then the pet shops which didnt smell as much as the uk ones.

And into the mosque, theres a curiously named "Centre for the preaching of the quran by post " downstairs. Cute.

wander towards the first row, nice qiraat, no 'big deal' manajat. Have an awkward time leaving though, trying to avoid interrupting peoples prayer beams.

books shops, islamic ones all around.

so i feast.

not too much in english, but pick up a book of the Muslims of Nepal by a sis who wen there to do her MA back in the day, an old publication by the Bangladesh Institute of Islamic Thought and a translation of Shayk Qaradawi's 'economic security in Islam'.

get home in time for a quick cooling shower (ok, too much detail), madly rushed kurta-pyjama iron and dash to a wedding.

not that i know the groom, he was a relly of a journo mate. Interesting venue and crowd many of hwho m were very goreously dressed and not male. Half the Deshi Cabinet was there. Wanted to invade the Water Resources Ministers space and squeeze his brain, but was too polite/cowardly. He is a good guy, many say, one of a few. My bhaiya attributes this to him being a sportsman.

its true here i think. last year, my feild assistant was an ex-footy player tragically taken out of the game by dodgy ligaments. really broad minded and noble character.

get home late, well fed and well met.

and we are off in midnight dhanmondi with some gdangs and ma blue guitar and the truth.

RAB drive past.