Arriving in Bangladesh!

I wrote to the British Council a year ago and mentioned that I had an idea to go to Bangladesh and compare their work songs with those that I know about Manchester and Lancashire during the Industrial Revolution. I thought that there could really be a link there that I could explore. I got onto the plane to Dubai from Manchester and settled in for the 7 hour flight. After arriving at Dubai International airport I joined the queue to check in for my flight to Bangladesh and my first taste of Bangladeshi queuing technique. The air hostess looked incredibly stressed as she shouted and whipped the huge crowd of people into shape, trying to get them through the tunnel and onto the aircraft. I hung back and watched this unfold, at this point I was far too tired to begin stressing. I got to my seat after a long wait and listened to Love – The Red Telephone as we took off. That was so relaxing, I recommend it to anybody. Stepping off the plane was quite surreal, knowing that I have been sent to Dhaka to follow up on my hunch and produce a body of work around it. North Dhaka is just as I expected, the roads are terrifying, the people are so friendly and I am very excited to start my research. Here are a few photographs from the car after my 16 hour flight. I'm reading Tagore on Nationalism at the moment and trying not to lean one way or the other, but it certainly shows the influence the West has had on this place. The fact that he is quoted on the front of the book as saying, “All the great nations of Europe have their victims in other parts of the world,” sets the tone.