Jaflong Zero Point, Goyain River. March 2014 (Bangladesh to the left, India to the right)
[from FB post: March 30, 2014]
This is the second place that struck me on this trip. There is a line in the gravel and water, on one side is Bangladesh, another India. The border guards blow their whistles and just keep shouting "stay on your own side of the border" How ridiculous is a border...?
Borders have always fascinated me. Maybe it is their sheer arbitrariness? When a border is a river, a mountain ridge, or some other geographical feature, it is slightly more understandable, yet puzzling nonetheless. We are all "people" and this is still "earth". This side of the border is "here" and the other side is 'there" - but somehow they are TOTALLY different places. It can't be serious, right? I am reminded of Teilhard de Chardin's quotation that was in the lobby of the Intercultural Center at Georgetown University:
"The age of nations has passed. Now, unless we wish to perish, we must shake off our old prejudices and build the Earth."
"Zero Kilometer" at Jaflong is famous all over Bangladesh. Here the Goyain River breaks through the foothills of the Himalayas quite suddenly and dramatically onto the vast plains of Bangladesh. The border follows the base of the hills (as per some British surveyor in the days of the Raj) and the views back into Meghalaya, India are indeed dramatic. The border slices across the gravelly Goyain, so walking into India is a simple task. However, there are border stations (very relaxed ones) on both sides of this "line in the gravel" whose guards constantly whistle and shout at tourists (mostly from Bangladesh) to stay on their side of the border. The place has a carnival air in addition to its natural beauty. I liked it.
"Please stay on your own side of the international border!" It still makes me chuckle.
The UNreality of the border is that on the Bangladesh side the people are Bengali and on the Indian side, the people, too, are Bengali, but also "Indian". Languages do not determine nationhood alone - look at Dutch, German, or French. Still, there seems to be an unnaturalness to arbitrary lines that divide the same people. Did people in Flanders feel cheated when they were lumped into the Belgium after Westphalia? The idea of the Third Reich's pan-Germania still sends chills down anyone's spine. Quebec struggles not to be consumed into an Anglophone Canadian sea with its plaintive license plates "Je me soviens" .
Would de Chardin also agree that the future of humanity needs one language to do away with all our internal divisions? Hmmm.... as a linguist I bristle at the idea, but as a human - I might just agree