I’ve recently begun Bangla lessons and although I’ve only had a few it’s already had a dramatic effect on my confidence when I’m out on the streets. It’s not that I can really understand anyone who speaks Bangla to me, and most of the time people just speak English right from the start anyway, but I think having even a little knowledge of the language makes me feel more comfortable being out there…
The only learned phrases I’ve actually used so far are “apnar naam ki?” (what is your name) and the corresponding “amar naam Dan”, as well as “amar desh America” (my country is America). My favorite thing to say in Bangla so far is “apni kaeno haschen?” which means “why are you laughing?” but I haven’t found an opportunity to use that one yet, not to mention the fact that I wouldn’t be able to understand a potential response in the slightest.
So lately Catie and I have been taking a lot of walks around the city, doing “errands”, picking out fruit and vegetables, and buying fun things like illegal DVDs and (legal) paint, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying having my camera along with me the whole time. I’m feeling quite comfortable taking photos on the streets. What’s funny is that the comfort I feel shooting in Bangladesh is a result of exactly the opposite factors as in New York. In NYC, I don’t feel strange lifting a large camera to my face on the streets because for the most part nobody cares or pays the slightest bit of attention to me (beforehand or during). In Chittagong, pretty much everyone within a 50 foot radius is already constantly staring at me, so when I put my rather conspicuous camera to my face here I feel basically no difference whatsoever.
Before signing off, I believe the goats in this post deserve a particular mention. Some days if you walk through the alley behind our building towards the main road where we get a lot of our food, you’ll find some cute little goats tied up near the wall. Unfortunately once you walk another 50 feet or so and get to the corner of the alley and the road, you’ve got a good chance of finding a little severed goat head sitting on the counter of a roadside vendor as the butcher and salesman chops up the rest of the meat from his recent slaughter. I know I should really – or perhaps really should not – have another shot of said vendor, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. (Not yet, anyway.) The whole thing is a little too close to home.
On a lighter note, MFC came up with a new banner which in my opinion doesn’t quite match up to their old one, but I respect their attempts to usher in a new era of South Asian fast food chicken.
Photos taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh between September 30 – October 5, 2009.
