Title: Oh Dhaka
Website:
I travelled to bangladesh with a lot of hope and anticipation. I am an avid fan of bengali culture and therefore i had decided to visit both the bengals - i.e. West Bengal(WB) and Bangladesh. inspite of my best efforts not to do so, i ended up making comparisons between the two sides of the border. While the capital of b'desh at some places are quite impressive in isolation, the grandeur of Kolkata(capital of WB) even at itsfaded avtar still far outshines it . While dhaka may have some nice areas and parks the huge social inequity makes it somewhat hypocritical. An average citizen of dhaka always tries to hide poverty and project an artificial prosperity. In Kolkata on the other hand people are more culturally mature. Tolerance level is definitely higher than dhaka. Kolkatans never allow their pride to be affected by poverty. in other words they do not mind calling a spade a spade. Kolkata is a more cosmopolitan city with an international outlook. Also i found kolkata to be more safe for westerners.Kolkat in some ways is more beautiful than dhaka. People in WB are generally more enlightened whereas b'deshis have a communal streak. B'deshis suffer from the classical dichotomy regarding their bengali and islamic identity and at the end they turn out to be a sordid mixture. west bengali are nearer to classical bengali culture. And yes, food in kolkata was far better than their dhaka counterpart though thelatter clim to be good cooks.l
