On the 17th of May 2003 I departed for Bangladesh. The reason I was
making this journey was for my uncle’s wedding. The day I departed it
was unexpectedly dull and chilly. I was excited because it would be
the first time I was travelling to Bangladesh, where I would also meet
my cousins from America. The journey was expected to take twenty-five
hours, because my destination was about a ten hours drive from the
Bangladesh International Airport, My uncle was going to meet me at the
airport. I had only seen photos of my uncle so I was worried whether I
would recognize him, but when I saw my uncle, I recognized him
straight away because he looked like a lot like my father.
Coincidentally he was also wearing similar clothes as to those in the
photograph. My uncle was of medium build, quite tall, with long black
hair and dark in complexion. He was very happy to see me because he
had never met me before.
The environment and surroundings were very different from England; it
was very hot and humid. It was also very different from how I imagined
it. The climate and environment was like a mixture of Africa and the
Amazon, where there were occasional jungles and open dry lands.
My uncle had a car waiting outside the airport, the driver loaded my
luggage into the car. I sat in the car, which was like a furnace. The
amazing thing was that all the windows were closed and the driver was
sitting there quite comfortably. Before I could ask why he had all the
windows closed, my uncle remarked ‘Don’t open the windows, it’ll just
let more heat in’. It sounded amusing to me. I did not want to disobey
my uncle at that instance so I tried opening the window a little after
he fell asleep. When I opened the window so much hot air entered the
car I felt like the car was about to take-off, so I immediately closed
it.
The drive from the airport to our house was very bumpy and
uncomfortable, because the road surfaces were very broken down and
uneven, with big rocks and bricks sticking out of the ground.
Occasionally there would be ditches in the ground, which would make
the car jump and land on its useless suspension. Every time the car
would jump off the ground, I would hold my self off my seat until it
landed, which felt a bit better. The journey was long and tiresome.
The driver and my uncle though it was quite normal and did not seem to
realize how uncomfortable it was.
My uncle owned the national water company, so he was quite wealthy and
had built a mansion in place of the old house, which my late granddad
had built. The mansion was very extravagant and royal looking; it
consisted of twenty-three rooms; three gardens; a playing field and a
lake, which was quite adequate to cater for the wedding.
I chose the bedroom closest to the dining room because it was the
centre of action and always looked exciting.
In our house my grandmother, three of my aunts and my uncle all lived
together. My dad had a remarkable eight brothers and eight sisters,
from which sixty-three cousins derived. All of my cousins and
relatives were to attend this wedding and were due to arrive in the
next two days. Most of my cousins lived in nearby towns except some
who lived in America and England.
The next day, early in the morning, my cousins arrived from America.
They both were identical twins named Ahmed and Shakeel. They were same
age as me, fifteen years old. They had jet-black hair, twinkling brown
eyes and a mischievous look. I was shy at first, but that was not the
personality they shared; they were talkative and active. They became
good friends with me in the matter of a short time.