Faces of Panchuria - by Yusuf
Last winter, I went backpacking in Bangladesh, and stayed for two weeks in the remote village of Panchuria. To get there I took a dilapidated bus from Dhaka for 5 hours, a ferry to cross the mighty Ganges for an hour, another bus on the other side for three hours more, then a three wheeled rickshaw for 16 kilometers, and finally a short walk across yellow fields of mustard to reach the hut of my host. I was really tired, but what a sight greeted me, and I have to share it with you. It was yellow as far as the eyes can see, with the monotony broken only by the occasional palm tree :-
Most of Bangladesh is the low laying delta of three mighty rivers originating from the Himalayas - the Ganges, the Brahmaputra (or Jamuna) and the Meghna. Every year the country is lashed by rains from the Bay of Bengal, causing massive flooding which often kill hundreds of people. But the floods deposit fertile soil on the land, and Bangladeshis harvest rice in the summer and plant mustard in the fallow season in winter. So in winter the countryside is a beautiful yellow, a little like the rape fields in temperate climes. Incidentally, that scraggly palm tree, second from the left, produces a syrup which is cooked to make brown sugar. And the palms often host wild bees which make a lovely and fragrant yelow honey from the mustard flowers.
Here is the father of my host, an imposing figure who told me he was once in the Pakistani Army serving in the North Wetern Frontier Region, during the time when Bangladesh was East Pakistan. I thought he had a very kind face, and I couldn’t imagine him pointing a gun in anger at the enemy…. Full Article.
