March 2012
It was may last day in Dhaka and AH and I were visiting a nice park in the upscale Gulshan neighborhood of Dhaka. Dhaka has these pocket parks all over the city, usually around a small pond or lake. They are never large, but if maintained, they are incredible oases in a densely populated city with very little public green space. We saw a beautiful blue male kingfisher and sat marveling at his iridescent blue, shimmering on the branch overhanging the water. In perennially polluted Dhaka, for me it was like finding a piece of gold in a rubbish heap. How could something so beautiful live in such a degraded urban environment?
Knowing I loved fresh coconut milk, AH bought us a couple nature's juice packs. We found a bench, sat down to drink our coconut milk, and relished the quiet of the little park (Dhaka is also endlessly noisy). We were sitting, talking, and laughing (not loudly) when the park security guard came to us. He said something to A in Bengali and then A recommended we leave. I was perplexed. When A explained what had happened later, I burst out laughing. The guard had apparently told him "This is a park for enjoyment, not for sitting and gossiping idly".
Such an odd thing to add to my life's transgressions:
Ejected from a park in Dhaka, Bangladesh for "idle gossip"
How can I ever live with the shame?