a gentle place

Posted By Harry on November 30, 2010

Well I’m back in Dhaka having just spent 24 hours in what was voted the happiest city in the world in the 2006 World Happiness Survey – Rajshahi, Bangladesh. In the same survey Bangladesh was voted the happiest country. So what’s Bangladesh got that other places like the United States (ranked 46) and Great Britain (at 32) don’t have?

Parjatan Motel in Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Money? According to 2010 International Monetary Fund figures Bangladeshis enjoy a gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) of US$1 487 per person per year, ranking its national wealth at 155. (The Democratic Republic of Congo rates lowest at 182 with $330; the world GDP PPP is currently $10 500.) In contrast, and making it relevant to the readers of this blog, Australia ranks 10th ($38 663), the United States 6th ($45 934), the United Kingdom 19th ($34 388) and South Africa 77th ($10 229). Luxembourg rates the wealthiest at $78 409. So money obviously isn’t the reason for Rajshahi’s happiness.

How about wide open spaces and lack of overcrowding? Bangladesh has an estimated 165 million people on a land area of 147 570 km2; that’s double the size of Tasmania which has a population that has just reached 500 000 and 1.5% the size of the USA (9 826 675 km2) which has a population less than double that at just over 300 million people. To put that into figures that can be comprehended, the USA has a population density of 32/km2 while Bangladesh has one of 1 099/km2. Australia, admittedly not a fertile country, has a population density of 2.8/km2! Visit Bangladesh and that population density cannot be ignored.

Rajshahi Medical College Hospital

Enough of the figures. Why am I writing about Bangladesh on a gentle place? Bangladesh, with it’s poverty, extreme weather patterns and its number 1 rating as the country most likely to be devastated by climate change (were the earth’s temperature to rise by just one degree Celsius, 11% of Bangladesh would be submerged displacing 55 million people) seems anything but a gentle place. But that’s not what you feel when you visit here. You experience gentleness in everyone you meet. Everywhere you go. And you see colour. Bright colour.

Dinner last night, had at Aristocrat roadhouse halfway between Rajshahi and Dhaka, was a perfect illustration of this. After my favourite Bangladeshi meal, dhal makhani, was served I watched as each of my Bangladeshi colleagues served each other before serving themselves and, having noticed the plate of the person next to them emptying, stopped eating mid-mouthful to add yet more naan to their culinary neighbour’s plate. Such displays of caring and gentleness cycled around the table throughout the meal, naturally amongst the customary pleas of ‘No, no, that’s too much.’ But it would be rude to deny the friendship and, after approaching proficiency in eating with my hands (right hand puckered into the shape of a badminton shuttlecock as it gathers up the food and elephant trunks it into your mouth; left hand avoiding direct food contact but used to spoon yet more dhal onto your plate and the plates of those around you) we rolled down the ornate Aristocrat stairs and into the waiting minibus. It was time to see more of Bangladeshi’s colour, and the road was as good a place as any to observe it.

Bangladeshi trucks must be of the most colorful in the world. With a framing coat of canary yellow, each panel is painted with utopian scenes of snow-capped mountains, meandering rivers, enchanted forests and fairytale palaces; verdant greens, royal blues, crimson reds and burnt oranges. No pastel shades for vibrant Bangladesh. Even the central hub of the rear differential is painted, usually mimicking that of half a large soccer ball. Whereas the trucks are simply glaringly colourful, the passenger rickshaws are both colorful and ornate. Gold, silver and bronze are added, as is the standard shocking pink. The flat-tray rickshaws don’t escape colour either: the slatted sides are painted in alternating blocks of yellow, red, blue, green and orange. Even the twin-light Victorian-style Rajshahi lampposts get the colour treatment with one bulb shining pink, the adjacent one green.

All this colour is augmented by the ‘colour’ of travelling on Bangladeshi roads: 90% of the 6 hour trip was spent in the middle of the road (whether on the straight, heading up a rise, or rounding a corner) trying to pass the overladen truck in front (that was itself passing another overladen truck) as a battered old passenger bus, sinking roof loaded with luggage as well as passengers that could not squeeze inside, tried to pass us. Once it passed I’d watch as a rooftop passenger crawled to the back of the bus, hung down over the rear window, and lit a cigarette! Flashing headlights, honking horns, and pedestrians and cyclists on the side of the road, seemingly oblivious to the danger we posed, completed the scene.

A rickshaw travels past the hotel in Dhaka

And the conversation? ‘Harry, You’ve been here so often now [4 times] you must make Bangladesh your home.’ I chuckled. ‘OK, your second home. You already love the food, we now find you a good Bangladeshi wife to make you happy here!’ Raucous laughter all round this time … including from Sue when I relayed this to her.

At 1am when they dropped me back at my hotel each one, despite being exhausted, got up, shook my hand and wished me the ‘best night’s sleep’. ‘See you tomorrow my friend.’ As they drove down the road I watched their smiles filling the side mirrors – gentle smiles further brightening the faces of gentle people.

So how accurate was the 2006 World Happiness Survey? Pretty spot on I reckon. Perhaps had REM visited here they would have penned Gentle Happy People.

Categories: Community
Tags: Happiness, People