various cultural experiences that deserve a blog

After debating (with myself) long and hard about whether or not the following experience is blog-appropriate, I’ve decided that it deserves a shout out, because it was one of the top five weirdest experiences of my life..... I went to a Bangladeshi rave.

There is a guy who works at Grameen who has taken it upon himself to become the unofficial “social coordinator” of the Grameen interns, and so he frequently invites large groups of foreigners to interesting events in Dhaka. anyway, a ticket was required to enter the party, and there were some very explicit rules on the ticket. For example, no one was allowed to “misuse” cameras, whatever that means. Also the party was supposedly “couples-only,” because they didn’t want it to turn into a huge bro-fest, which is what most parties in Bangladesh are, because women generally don’t leave their houses. As an interesting side note, it is illegal for Bangladeshis to consume alcohol. Foreigners may, however, drink alcohol in Bangladesh, although it is definitely not readily available- I’m glad I’m going to be celebrating my birthday here. When we got there, we walked into a room with a dance floor and a bar (there were also large pillows on the floor… sketchy). This room was called the “dry zone.” Then, we went upstairs to the roof of the hotel, and there was another dance floor and a pool. This was called the “wet zone.” Despite the best attempts of hotel authorities, the party did indeed turn into a lot of guys dancing with each other. Although homosexuality is not really recognized in Bangladesh, male affection, interestingly, is not taboo, so it’s common to see men holding hands, and in this situation, dancing with each other. Most of the women there were prostitutes (which was clear because they were wearing skanky pseudo-western clothing- a huge contrast from the salweer kameez, saris, and birkas that ALL Bangladeshi women wear during the day). By the end of the evening, almost everyone had jumped into the pool with his clothing on (I didn't). Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Bangladeshi men rave with each other and the occasional prostitute.


On a significantly less creepy note, I’ve had some other interesting cultural experiences, including a concert a few nights ago. The first band that played was traditional Bengali music, and they were amazing. there was a guy singing, one beat boxing, and others playing various musical instruments. The music was amazing- it was Bangladeshi folk music. The next band was a cove band of American music. It always surprises me what western influences have made it over here and what hasn’t. For example, I was expecting them to play “classic” American music (billy joel, the eagles, etc.), and I was sorely mistaken. They led off with coldplay and also played some kings of leon (which is a band that I haven’t really heard of, but the song was called “your sex is on fire,” which I found pretty racy considering how conservative Bangladeshi culture is). Again, there were no women at this “party” except for the other interns. It was definitely amusing to hear “indie” music being sung in a heavy Bengali accent.

Today, I went to Sonargaon, the first capital of Bangladesh. The scenery was beautiful, although it felt like it was 120 degrees with 100% humidity, so it was hard to appreciate our surroundings. There was a sweet fort/museum, and they were celebrating an arts festival, so there were lots of locals there. They were a typical Bangladeshi crowd, and as such, we were treated like celebrities. One man came up to me and said, “one picture please?” and then I heard him take approximately 12 pictures. Other people don’t ask to take a picture, they just whip out their camera phones and catch you off guard. Also, there were lots of school children who came up to us and presented us with flowers, after spouting off the only English sentence that they knew (“Hello, how are you, fine thank you, goodbye”… all in one breath). I met a very nice professor and his family, and he requested my e-mail address, so I am looking forward to receiving special e-mails from them. One of the girls that I was with got asked for her autograph. Also, today was the first time that I have seen another group of tourists out and about in Bangladesh. After Sonargaon, we went to see a famous fort in old Dhaka. It was built in the 1600’s, and it is supposedly haunted because the daughter of the Kahn died before the fort was finished. It started raining, so we unfortunately did not get to take a rickshaw tour through old Dhaka, or the much anticipated boat ride through parts of Dhaka. Next time…

In closing, yesterday I was on a rickshaw and the driver suddenly pulled over to the side of the road, stopped the rickshaw, and got off. He then proceeded to relieve himself in the ditch on the side of the road. I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go.