The second day of our trip to Rajshahi fell on Shab-e-Bharat, which I mentioned in one of my posts last year. We did not observe the holiday, but instead took a long day trip from our base in Rajshahi. Our first stop was in Chapainawabganj, where there are several historic structures. The first we visited was the Shona Mosque, a black stone or terracotta mosque built c. 1500. Surprisingly, the women were allowed inside (I think it isn’t regularly used as a mosque anymore because it is administered by the Archaeology Department), so I was able to see the inside as well as the outside. Beside the mosque and inside the fence was the tomb of a freedom fighter; outside the wall was an older cluster of tombs. Next we went to a nearby archaeological site consisting of a Rajbari, mosque, and tomb. All were from the Mughal period. The Rajbari (= palace, ruler’s house) was the seat of a Mughal governor, who built the house there so he could be close to his spiritual teacher. When his guru died, the governor built a tomb for him in the same complex. He also built the mosque, but I don’t know if that was before or after his teacher’s death. We were given a tour of all the sites. All of the tours on this trip were in Bengali, and, gratifyingly, I was able to understand almost everything that was said.
After we left the Rajbari, we drove to a village in Bolarhat subdivision, right near the Indian border. In the village, we were hosted by a family, who fed us a meal of ruti and mango for brunch. The mango was so delicious; they fed us several varieties so we could taste the differences between them. The ruti was made with roughly ground flour, which was a nice change from the white bread we usually eat here. Before and after the meal we talked to the family and the rest of the villagers. The woman who was hosting us had just had a baby a week before; the teachers and I spent some time cooing over the newborn.
Leaving that village, we went to a silk plantation (or whatever you call it). We arrived just as a downpour started, so we waited in a guest house until the rain petered out. We walked past the rows of mulberry bushes and into a building where they raise the silkworms. The man who was giving us a tour picked up a worm and gave it to me! They had two rooms full of racks where different aged insects were fed and cared for. They ranged from the three-inch-long older ones to tiny little ones that had just hatched a week before. In another room the guide showed Audrey and me the mulberry leaves that had been harvested to feed to the worms.
The next stop was a mango garden. It was harvest time while we were there, so we talked to the workers who were the mangos. The tool used to collect mangos is a long piece of bamboo with a small net on the end; this allows the worker to reach up and pick the fruit without damaging it. One of the workers gave us some unripe mango with salt on it; this combination tasted surprisingly savory. We wandered back farther into the mango garden, looking at the pretty trees. They were surprisingly large; I guess I had been expecting smaller trees like you find in an apple orchard, but mango trees are BIG. In the back of the mango garden, I had a conversation with a cowherd who was moving through with his herd.
We then went to a mango haat(=village market that happens a few times a week). A large group of bideshis suddenly arriving in a haat in rural Bangladesh is one thing, but an even bigger surprise is when those bideshis all speak Bengali. I wasn’t able to buy any mangos because I was too busy talking about them! Luckily, the program bought some crates of them for us. After the mango haat visit, I thought we would head back to the village where we ate brunch to eat a late lunch. It was about 4 PM. Instead, we ended up on the bank of a river, boarded a ship, and went for a boat ride up the river. The river’s name is the Mahananda River, and at this point it forms the border with India. Our boat was flying the Bangladeshi flag, but we saw several Indian fishing boats as well. We could see the watchtowers on the Indian side from the boat.
Finally, we returned to the village and were fed a delicious dinner (complete, of course, with mango) by the same family. Afterward, we talked to the villagers, and one woman decided to show me the village. But first I had to wear my orna the right way! Once that was straightened out, she took me to her grandparents’ house, and then showed me her house and introduced me to her husband, and finally took me to see the small river that ran by the village. Throughout all of this, we were surrounded by a crowd of women and children who were eager to show me as much as they could of the village and continually chattered away. After all of this, we finally returned to the vans and drove the three hours back to Rajshahi. One good thing about Rajshahi division is that there is less traffic and the roads are better maintained, so the drive is actually relatively smooth and comfortable for Bangladeshi roads.
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