Time to Head Home

23 August 2006
Today’s the day we go home…. Its also the day we print out the reports, and get the partners from both Ernst & Young and SF Ahmed, our Bangladeshi audit counterparts to sign off on the accounts and the report….. we said our goodbyes to the Bangladeshi auditors, the client, and the drivers that served us so well in getting us from place to place…..

It’s a huge relief to finally be going home…. My colleague has this theory that we start to change after spending 40 days in Bangladesh…. I have to agree with him, I had started losing it after breaching the 40 day mark….. so its with great relief that I get to say farewell to Bangladesh after 45 long days in Bangladesh…..

I’m looking forward to claiming my life back, being reunited with family and friends, being able to do all the things I enjoy back home….. nothing could possibly spoil today…. Well, unless they cancel the flight, or I get held back in Bangladesh for visa problems, or….. well, touch wood nothing like that happens….. what happened to those 2 unfortunate KPMG auditors comes to mind…..

Well, below are 2 lists I compiled from the things I noted during our time in Bangladesh….


5 Most Favourite Lines Uttered by the Locals in Bangladesh

5. It is a fact, nothing to do. (“That’s the way things are over here, there’s nothing we can do about it”)

4. Problem? You have problem? (“Is there something bothering you?”)

3. One more piece, one more piece

2. Boshen boshen!!! (“sit down, sit down!!!”)

1. Shama Sha Nair!! (“No problem!!”)

In Bangladesh, Things That Make You Go EEEwwww, Yuuuuccckkkk, GAAAASSPPPP!!!!!

1. You’re in conversation with someone…. they suddenly feel the urge to pick their noses, right in front of you, in the middle of your conversation….. they then proceed to examine their findings with 2-3 fingers, spreading the lurve…. If that’s not enough, at the end of the conversation, its Bangladeshi culture that they MUST shake your hands….

2. People around you clear their throats….. and then spit out their contents in the spot right next to you….

3. On the roads of Dhaka…..you’re sitting in a car….. you approach a junction, a car shoots out of nowhere….. your car swerves out of the way….. you jump back in your seat….. you curse and swear, then you sigh in relief….. an accident is avoided by mere inches…. you’ve just suffered one of many heart attacks on the roads of Dhaka….

4. After a meal, the guy next to you drinks his glass of water…. then gargles….. loudly…. And then swallows it in…..

5. You’re in your room, doing your thing, you hear a knock, a quarter of a second later the door bursts open, another quarter of a second later, a Bangladeshi walks right in….

6. You’re in the shower, and then from the corner of your eye, you see a black patch moving….. turns out to be your friendly cockroach…..

7. You’re again in the shower….. the lights then go out……

8. You’re lying on your bed….. the lights go out….. so does the fan…… and its bloody summer…..

9. Body odour…. Need I say more?

10. In relation to body odour, the locals here actually wear the same shirt for 2 or more consecutive days…. Urgh…..