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LOCATION > NORTHWEST OF DHAKA CATEGORY > FAMILY

Boat trip on Turag
IN the hot glare of the August sun, we drove slowly to Muradnagar ghat through the heavy traffic.
One of our team members developed serious phobia about water and became concerned about our plan to stay overnight in the boat. To the jeers of our other team members, she asked me with suspicion: “You must be truthful ... do you think our boat will be big enough and won't sink?”
Before I opened my mouth, Towfik answered: “Every boat can sink, even the much famed Titanic could not escape the fate.”
“Oh Towfik, can you hold your tongue for a while?” I had to intervene to assure her that the water around Dhaka is only flood water, it is placid and the boat was comfortably big.
But my assurance hardly doused her anxiety.
The boat was big enough to accommodate us all it had two big cabins where six persons could sleep comfortably and had nice toilets for the guests. But the most appealing place of the boat was its wide rooftop.
The owner of the boat is our eminent filmmaker Tanveer Mokammel who on occasions used the boat for writing shooting scripts in solitude. Tanveer kindly let us use his boat along with his chief assistant Sarwar and good natured cook Nibash. Sarwar, a highly energetic and good mannered Youngman, took command of the trip and our comfort.
As we settled down on the boat, the engine coughed up creating much noise and billows of smoke. We began our journey through the placid silt laden floodwaters towards east.
The heat of the sun, the steady hum of the engine and the smooth motion of the boat on the still water had a pleasant effect. Some of us lay on our back on the rooftop watching the beauty of the constantly changing scenery. Now and then we passed small mechanised boats hired by picnic parties shouting. The youths greeted us by vigorously waving their hands.
On the top deck I witnessed an amazing feat of struggle. Inam, our most potential member of the team, brought an inflatable raft from abroad. He set up the pump machine but the raft needed a huge volume of air to be inflated. Inam and Noor already exhausted their legs by pumping the equipment, now Zakir, the lankiest member of the team, took his turn and did the trick amid much cheers from our team members.
An hour later, we anchored our boat at an isolated place where the water was tolerably clean for swimming. Most of us are swimming lovers, but there was no arrangement in the boat for the swimmers either to get down to the water or to get on board. But as we were adamant, the crewmembers somehow tied a ladder with ropes and lowered it to the water.
Swimming already exhausted us thoroughly and a tasty lunch forced us to take a brief nap in the cabin. The scene around us was quite reposed, fishermen were busy in casting nets, peasants were giving bath to their cattle.
In the late afternoon, we could not resist the temptation of buying some fishes like telapia, catfish and snakehead from a fisherman before we started for another spot. We disembarked from the boat and sow some haunted buildings deserted by their owner during the riot of 1964. We came to know that a businessman has bought one of the buildings.
Before dusk, we came back to the same spot where we anchored before for overnight stay.
After dinner everybody settled down on the roof. A wonderful sense of peace and stillness enveloped us. As the night grew older, the sky was filled with brilliant stars, faithfully mirrored in the glassy water. A passenger plane moved steadily on a lonely journey through the space.
“A shooting star!” exclaimed Noor.
“Aaa, is't real big?” appreciated everybody. I have never seen such a
big glowing shooting star. It looked like a ten pounder artillery shell.
On our south, a radiant glow over the Dhaka city reminded us that we have to go back tomorrow to the city life.
Story & Photo:
KHASRU CHOWDHURY & SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN Courtesy: Tanveer Mokammel