(Part Three)
My Trip to NFB Office and attending a Milad
By A.H. Jaffor Ullah
Monday, June 4, 2001
Today is the third day of my stay in Bangladesh. But somehow it seems as if I have been here longer than that. In the preceding two days, I took quite a few shots using my digital camera. Most pictures that I took represent all too familiar arboreal scenes. I mostly like tropical trees and shrubbery, which are difficult to see in America unless one happens to visit the extreme southern part of Florida notably Miami and Key West. Similar to the last two days, squalls of monsoon were falling on various parts of the city. Therefore, the daytime temperature fell quite a few degrees. The monsoon clouds shielded us from the summer sun. All day today, I don’t remember seeing any speck of sunshine. In the northern suburb of Gulshan where trees are abundant one can hear birds chirping. Occasionally, one can hear the cry of ubiquitous crow. Unlike the city folks who dread monsoon rain, I sort of liked the look of dark and overcast days. Although I had been living in the West for over three decades, it is a nostalgic trip for me. The verdant landscape, monsoon deluge, chirping of the birds, the showy flowers of kodom, frangipani, krisnachura, and other hosts of tropical plants transformed Dhaka’s landscape into a magic land. One really has to come to Bangladesh in June-July-August to see the monsoon-drenched landscape of this alluvial land only to appreciate the alluring beauty of Bengal. Yes, we have pollution, poverty and all that, but Bengal is still a Ruposhi Bangla only in the monsoon months. I’m not making this up. Poet Jibanananda Das saw this awesome beauty in the last century and chronicled it through his poems. One short trip to rural Bangladesh in Vora Borsha (in the height of monsoon season) will attest to Das’s acute observation.
A visit to NFB Office: A charming experience
The first time when I met Tanvir Chowdhury, the editor-in-chief of NFB, he told me to come at 10:30 a.m. to see his crew of Global Amitech in action. The other day I met Raihan, the webmaster when I visited Tanvir for the very first time. Besides Tanvir and Raihan they have two more crew members. They are: Ashfaq Uddin Jhuton and M. Zakir Hossain Khan (Litton). Tanvir told me that he and the crew members work from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. non-stop to compose the web page for The Independent, Muktakantha, and NFB. The first priority goes to Independent. Most of the news items for Independent are downloaded electronically. It is then Ashfaq’s duty to put the news in proper place. Tanvir said that it does not that much time for his crews to compose the web pages for all three newspapers.
An ever-smiling editor-in-chief,
Tanvir Chowdhury, hard at work!
Ashfaq Uddin Jhuton
is an IT expert who helps to fill the pages of NFB
I was most interested knowing how
NFB is put together. Tanvir told me that before his crew members
arrive the office he goes over all the e-mails. He also extracts
the attached documents and reads them. He then gives it to Ashfaq.
Zakir’s role is to type up news stories from Dhaka’s newspapers.
By 2:30 p.m. all the web pages have been constructed. Now it is up
to Tanvir to upload the pages by using ftp, which he does meticulously
every day to bring out NFB and other papers in ever popular electronic
domain. Therefore, Australian and other Southeast Asian readers can
read the latest edition of NFB late in the after on the same day.
The European readers on the other hand may read the updated paper in the
morning and the American readers will still be in their bed when Tanvir
uploads the latest edition of NFB. Readers of NFB should send their
comments by afternoon (their local time) through e-mails if they want to
see their comments posted in the paper on the same day. Needless
to say, Tanvir and his staff are diligent worker who spends no times dilly-dallying
in the office. Rather, they work very hard to update NFB days-in-days-out.
And they are very good at that. I myself was very impressed with
the overall operation. That is the sole reason I am including my
visit to NFB’s office in this write-up.
M. Zakir Hossain Khan
Litton types at an exceeding speed.
His expertise helps
Tanvir to publish NFB on time everyday
Eid-e-Miladun-Nabi Celebration
Tomorrow (Tuesday, June 5, 2001), Bangladesh will observe the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (swa). Although this is not a big event in Wahhabi-dominated Muslim nations on earth, Sunni Muslims from countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc., celebrate the prophet’s birthday with much fanfare. Some religious organizations in Dhaka bring out peaceful procession with colorful posters to mark the event. Tonight (June 4, 2001) as the sun sets in the western horizon, pious Muslims all over Bangladesh would offer extra prayer, host Milad mehfil (congregating in private homes to honor the Prophet). This Milad festival is increasingly becoming a controversial issue among Sunni Muslims. For one thing, the arch conservative Wahabbites shun Milad in every conceivable way. They think it is not proper to offer a praising session to mark the birthday of the prophet. In any event most of words uttered by Mullahs in Milad, with the exception of some recitation from Qur’an, is in Farsi (example: "Balagal Ula Bekamalihi… Ya Nabi Salam Alaika). In our subcontinent where Mazhab is very strong Milad is hosted routinely not only on Eid-e-Miladun Nabi but also on many other happy occasions.
A group of local Mullahs
who participated in Khatm-e-Qur'an and Milad.
The third Mullah from
left was the Huzur who officiated the program
My congenial host is a good Muslim
who routinely hosts Milad on every possible occasion. I was told
that Milad is arranged once every month. Therefore, tonight being
a special night (the night before Eid-e-Miladun Nabi) a Milad will be offered.
After the sunset when Maghreb salat is offered, we heard some footsteps
downstairs. We saw a dozen or so Mullahs from Gulshan’s Mosque entering
the house. They first finished recitation of the Holy Qur’an in one
seating. This program is popularly known as Khatm-e-Qur'an.
Each of the Mullahs recites 2 or more chapters of the holy book at an exceeding
speed (4-6 X times the normal speed of recitation), which no one could
hardly understand. At the end, a traditional Milad is offered, which
ends in a prolong Munazaat (supplication). Finally, the host distributes
boxes containing sweetmeats. This is the first Milad I have attended
in a long while. However, since childhood, we have attended so many
Milads that all those singing part
came from nowhere. The head
Mullah also sang parts of Milad songs in Bengali, which I thought was nice.
Another view of Mullahs
who participated in the program.
In the foreground is
shown the grandson of our host
In an overcast day such as this
one, I had plenty to cover from my visit of NFB to participation in a grand
Milad. At the end of the Milad, the host asked the Mullahs whether
it would be okay to take few shots. To which the Mullahs consented
rather gleefully. The two photographs above speak volubly.
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A.H. Jaffor Ullah writes from Dhaka.
Comments should be directed at - Jaffor@Netscape.net
The picture on the top is locally known as Massundi, tropical shrub bearing light pink flowers. This non-native plant, which grows profusely in Northern part of India has adapted rather well in Bangladesh's soil.