Kay Poh Chees, Ducks and Sing Songs
15 January 2007, PM
Its one of those things that irritates me, people who come and ‘kepoh’, even if they are not involved….. it happens sometimes back home, but it happens all the time here….
I interview one person, but many other people would also come and crowd around us….. I found it quite amusing though, when on one of my checks on the motorcycles earlier tonight, I walk out of the room along with my Bangladeshi auditor, and along with us, 3 others followed….. and as we reached the motorcycles, another 2-3 more people appeared….
Digressing a little, the Bangladeshis suffer a lot of power cuts, as they ration the power supply around the country…. So they need things like torch lights….. people also need mobile phones, regardless of where you are, and that includes Bangladesh…..
So here in Bangladesh, they actually combine the 2, torchlight and mobile phone…. You press a button, and a tiny light bulb lights up at the head of the phone, and voila, you have a beam of light which you can point at anything you fancy….
It must have been the only time I was glad to have those people around me, it sure made it easier inspecting those motorcycles!!!
15 January 2007, AM
I do a lot of travelling in Bangladesh…. As I travel from village to village, we take main trunk roads to little side alleys to get to where we need to go…. Many of the things I see include roadkill….. mainly dogs I think, not that I really want to know though….
Have you ever seen a duck waddle? To be precise, have you ever seen a duck waddle real quick, as it tries to hurry across the road before they become roadkill themselves…..
They strain their necks forward, shifting their weight from left to right and back to left…..While willing their bodies to move more quickly than its accustomed to…. This is difficult, as most of their body weight seems to be in their fat behinds which holds them back, hence it was quite a comical sight as they struggle to force their bodies forward….
Not so funny for the 4 ducks crossing the road though as they see our 4 wheel drive hurtle towards them at 100 km/hr…. not to worry, they made it safely across…. Well, there was one final duck that was left behind by his friends…. And in a desperate move to join his friends, he started flapping his wings in order to move more quickly…..
I don’t know whether he made it safely as he only attempted to cross as we passed him….. but you have to wonder why they didn’t just fly over the road though….
14 January 2007
I’ve always wondered why people would swim in icy cold water during winter…. I believe this happens annually in certain parts of Russia, South Korea and even in England too….. you also wonder how the cold feels like…..
Well, I may not know why they do it…. But I do now know how it feels…. It’s the middle of winter now in Bangladesh, and I’m stuck with cold showers ever since I moved to the countryside….
I cant say I really look forward to showers under such conditions…. You turn the shower on, and slowly put a leg in, pull out, then put the other leg in….. you take a deep breath, and then jump under the shower…..
It feels like your entire body is engulfed in a blanket ice, and you start to shiver almost at once…. Your teeth starts chattering, and you quickly soap yourself down to get the shower over with…. When you step out of the shower, your whole body feels numb, but only for a several seconds before you get hit by an extremely cold sensation again…..
Yeah, I now know how it feels like, but why people subject themselves to such situations is simply beyond me….. as for me, I cant wait to return to Dhaka, and to get my hot shower again….
13 January 2007
I take my place in the room, and a row of men and women are staring at me, and the other 2 Bangladeshi auditors with me…. One of them holds a tambourine, another holds a pair of metal like castinets, another has a bongo like instrument, while a fourth man controls an accordion….
They start singing a song, about how village people who go to a big city (I’m assuming they mean Dhaka), with their home village never far from their thoughts….. despite not understanding what was being said, I must say it sounded pretty good…..
10 minutes earlier
We were hard at work, when the Rural Drama Programme Organiser indicated to one of the Bangladeshi auditors, that we were invited to move to the room next door…. Why, I thought to myself…. We had so much work to do, I wanted to get it all over with and go back…..
Then I was told that the people involved in the Rural Drama Society were waiting for us, and they wanted to give us a short performance…. We felt obliged to go, and to my surprise, there were 6 men and 4 women, waiting for us patiently, and proceeded to introduce themselves , and wanted to know who we were…. Interesting how they wanted to perform for us despite not knowing who we were…..
20 minutes later
It turned out to be an interesting show, not something my EY colleagues who came with me to Bangladesh were able to watch….. but for now, its back to work for me!!!
Its one of those things that irritates me, people who come and ‘kepoh’, even if they are not involved….. it happens sometimes back home, but it happens all the time here….
I interview one person, but many other people would also come and crowd around us….. I found it quite amusing though, when on one of my checks on the motorcycles earlier tonight, I walk out of the room along with my Bangladeshi auditor, and along with us, 3 others followed….. and as we reached the motorcycles, another 2-3 more people appeared….
Digressing a little, the Bangladeshis suffer a lot of power cuts, as they ration the power supply around the country…. So they need things like torch lights….. people also need mobile phones, regardless of where you are, and that includes Bangladesh…..
So here in Bangladesh, they actually combine the 2, torchlight and mobile phone…. You press a button, and a tiny light bulb lights up at the head of the phone, and voila, you have a beam of light which you can point at anything you fancy….
It must have been the only time I was glad to have those people around me, it sure made it easier inspecting those motorcycles!!!
15 January 2007, AM
I do a lot of travelling in Bangladesh…. As I travel from village to village, we take main trunk roads to little side alleys to get to where we need to go…. Many of the things I see include roadkill….. mainly dogs I think, not that I really want to know though….
Have you ever seen a duck waddle? To be precise, have you ever seen a duck waddle real quick, as it tries to hurry across the road before they become roadkill themselves…..
They strain their necks forward, shifting their weight from left to right and back to left…..While willing their bodies to move more quickly than its accustomed to…. This is difficult, as most of their body weight seems to be in their fat behinds which holds them back, hence it was quite a comical sight as they struggle to force their bodies forward….
Not so funny for the 4 ducks crossing the road though as they see our 4 wheel drive hurtle towards them at 100 km/hr…. not to worry, they made it safely across…. Well, there was one final duck that was left behind by his friends…. And in a desperate move to join his friends, he started flapping his wings in order to move more quickly…..
I don’t know whether he made it safely as he only attempted to cross as we passed him….. but you have to wonder why they didn’t just fly over the road though….
14 January 2007
I’ve always wondered why people would swim in icy cold water during winter…. I believe this happens annually in certain parts of Russia, South Korea and even in England too….. you also wonder how the cold feels like…..
Well, I may not know why they do it…. But I do now know how it feels…. It’s the middle of winter now in Bangladesh, and I’m stuck with cold showers ever since I moved to the countryside….
I cant say I really look forward to showers under such conditions…. You turn the shower on, and slowly put a leg in, pull out, then put the other leg in….. you take a deep breath, and then jump under the shower…..
It feels like your entire body is engulfed in a blanket ice, and you start to shiver almost at once…. Your teeth starts chattering, and you quickly soap yourself down to get the shower over with…. When you step out of the shower, your whole body feels numb, but only for a several seconds before you get hit by an extremely cold sensation again…..
Yeah, I now know how it feels like, but why people subject themselves to such situations is simply beyond me….. as for me, I cant wait to return to Dhaka, and to get my hot shower again….
13 January 2007
I take my place in the room, and a row of men and women are staring at me, and the other 2 Bangladeshi auditors with me…. One of them holds a tambourine, another holds a pair of metal like castinets, another has a bongo like instrument, while a fourth man controls an accordion….
They start singing a song, about how village people who go to a big city (I’m assuming they mean Dhaka), with their home village never far from their thoughts….. despite not understanding what was being said, I must say it sounded pretty good…..
10 minutes earlier
We were hard at work, when the Rural Drama Programme Organiser indicated to one of the Bangladeshi auditors, that we were invited to move to the room next door…. Why, I thought to myself…. We had so much work to do, I wanted to get it all over with and go back…..
Then I was told that the people involved in the Rural Drama Society were waiting for us, and they wanted to give us a short performance…. We felt obliged to go, and to my surprise, there were 6 men and 4 women, waiting for us patiently, and proceeded to introduce themselves , and wanted to know who we were…. Interesting how they wanted to perform for us despite not knowing who we were…..
20 minutes later
It turned out to be an interesting show, not something my EY colleagues who came with me to Bangladesh were able to watch….. but for now, its back to work for me!!!
posted by zufar | 12:25 AM
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