Dhanmondi Blues

Pratiti Shirin writes for DOT : 
Some fifty years ago, Dhanmondi was literally a place where paddy used to be processed into rice in its huge and empty fields. Paddy used to be cultivated all over the area. Over the years, the place has become the oldest hub of the elite of Dhaka with the most aristocratic markets, educational institutions and houses being situated there, not to mention Dhanmodi lake and its adjacent park ―not only a popular resource for health conscious people but also, dating spot― but also the historical Dhanmondi 32 with its residence of the Father of the Nation being located there. So for a variety of reasons, Dhanmondi has acquired a distinct flavor and taste which is perhaps missing in any other part of Dhaka city.
Take for instance the adda culture centred around the lake. Not only do health freaks gather there each morning in their own distinct laughing and fitness clubs but in the evening, a bunch of retired men hang around the food stalls for their daily dose of adda in a place called the ‘island’ (which is an insider joke) because it is connected to mainland Dhanmondi via a bridge. Then, there are the educational institutions. Some of the oldest and most renowned colleges and schools of the country are located facing opposite each other in a certain street in Dhanmondi where for some mysterious reason, the street lights were always missing or stolen whenever they would be replaced. This was the condition at least twenty years ago. The popular saying went that local college goons kept the lights intentionally out-of-order in order to facilitate mugging or political revenge-taking. Whatever the truth was, the missing lights caused endless harassment to the residents of that street who lived in residential houses unrelated to either the school or college. Only very recently has this writer noticed that the quite historical college with its unremarkable nameplate has obtained a permanent stone plaque as its name.
Then of course are the very famous New Market and Chandni Chawk and Gawsia all of which used to be notorious for sexual harassment of women. People used to come from far off places to buy the trademarked biscuits of Olympia or have their clothes being dry-washed and ironed at Lifa whose original owner was a Chinese man. People would go to Lifa to see some Chinese talk in fluent Bangla as if he was some kind of a special attraction being on display. The doing of the laundry would just be an excuse to see him.
Then in greater Dhanmondi were other markets and the biggest shoe market of the country, not to mention remarkable music shops and wedding decorators and the pet shops. Over the years, the most significant cultural centres of various countries; football clubs and playgrounds of the two most famous football teams and art galleries and whatever was the latest fashion, also came to be located in Dhanmondi. So it came that the first IT- training institutions or photography teaching schools were also set up there because the name Dhanmondi itself was iconic for the latest trends. So, it is no wonder that even the first foreign ice-cream shop or one very famous kebab house found its place there, not to mention the legendary halim street shop named after one’s mother’s brother when halim was a relatively unheard of name among Dhaka’s street food lovers. The pioneering Chinese restaurants of Dhaka were also found in Dhanmondi which from 2000 onwards, saw the mushrooming of English-medium schools and private universities and from 2010 onwards, the flourishing of global cuisine like Turkish Doner Kebab or Arabian swarma. The area saw and unprecedented growth of shopping malls over the years perhaps to cater to this student population and also, to the one living in the halls of residences of the biggest public university of the country which also happens to be situated in greater Dhanmondi.
From being a paddy field, Dhanmondi has assumed a very unique taste and flavor of sophistication due to the same nature of residents who used to live there from the earliest history of Dhaka city. Dhanmodiites were some of the most educated and cultured people who settled in Dhaka city and it was no coincidence that Dhanmondi became the pioneer of whatever was the latest in order to meet the demands and cater to the needs of those sophisticated elite who were its inhabitants. Although eventually Dhanmondi’s fashionable shopping malls were replaced by bigger ones on the outskirts of Dhaka, its cultural centres and art galleries and some of its food shops remain iconic and irreplaceable.
The writer is an Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh. She can be reached at pratshirin85@du.ac.bd.