|
January 4, 2007
On January 4, 2007, I arrived at the Zia International Airport in
Dhaka at 2:00 AM. I was really tired as I arrived at the custom.
Although I had one person “Expediter” from the US Embassy, it took
long time for the process. Then the drama came for my luggage. I
waited long enough for my luggage. I saw the scene (never seen like
this before) besides another beltway where thousands of luggage
pieces were left behind for delivery from several flights (who
knows). Luckily I received my luggage after 50 minutes.
It was amazing that the expediter person could go through any
door without any questions. Finally, I came to our rental apartment
with our department head and the driver. It is a restricted area
where my apartment is located. However, prior arrangement had been
made for my arrival. It was not a big deal. It was almost 4:00 AM
when we were greeted by tea and biscuits by a young boy, Idrish who
will be my cook for my entire stay. He is responsible for shopping,
cooking, and maintenance of this flat.
I met with the U.S. Embassy one week later, since I was invited
to speak in India. It was an experience with security briefing.
Dhaka is a large chaotic and highly polluted city with millions of
people, thousands of rickshaws and CNG (three-wheeler), and
thousands of buses. Driving rules are there and no one follows. At
red lights vehicles may or may not stop, and you have to watch to
cross. Pedestrians have no right.
January 11
Eid (Eid-ul Azha), which occurred on 11 January, was quite an
interesting cultural experience for us. It is the time when Muslims
sacrifice animals to commemorate the sacrifice of Hazrat Ibrahim.
According to the local paper, millions of bulls and goats were sold
in the market for slaughter.
January 23.JPG)
It was a holiday for Hindus on the occasion of
Swaraswati (goddess of learning) Puja.
I was invited to participate in this festival.
It was celebrated at the campus auditorium. The Vice-Chancellor of
the university was there to commemorate the program. It was great a
great experience with students and faculty. Our colleague Dr. Robert
Wick was visiting me, and he also joined us for the celebration. The
program ended with ‘offerings’, ‘prasad’ and a box lunch.
Campus Chronicle
My understanding was that all classes would
begin on 28 January (official date). This was not the case. Only the
incoming students (475 students) had orientation on 31 January. The
orientation program was a long and very procedural one. Dean,
Proctor, and the Director gave their share of speeches primarily on
rules and regulations. Finally, the Vice-Chancellor had a welcome
speech. The first half of the program ended with a box lunch. The
afternoon session started with visiting departments within Faculty
of Agriculture, and explaining their goals and objectives of each of
the departments along with courses being offered.
The regular semester (January to June) was not
a normal one this time because of the political unrest in Dhaka
since October, 2006. Students did not complete their final
examinations (supposed to be done in December) until February 15 or
so. This delayed the whole semester by eight weeks. The classes for
Level II, Level III and Level IV students did not start until 15
March. This was a bad news for my own classes (MS – second year).
The first year MS students started their classes in 18 March, and
the second year MS students started in 2 April. How lucky I am?
Well, it is not really so. I have planned to condense all lectures
to about 22 lectures, each with 90 min (instead of 50 min for each
lecture).
Until this time, I was busy teaching Basic
Agronomy classes (Agro 531 and Agro 1103) to incoming students
(three sections). I had lectures on classification of agronomic
crops, fertilizers, tillage practices, and environmental factors on
crop production. It was real fun to teach these freshmen students.
Overall, I had some time to travel with my
family members who visited me at different times in January and
February.
|
.JPG)