I Look I See

 
I went to visit my younger brother Fakhrul in Dhaka the other day to see in what condition he is there and then I wrote an e-mail to my father about it. Here is that e-mail for all of you to read (the e-mail has slightly been changed). Fakhrul went there with some of his friends of Chittagong for university coaching.
“Assalamulikum abbu
Fakhrul stays here with 2 of his other friends. They are here for the last one-month.. There are three rooms. Fakhrul has his own room with an attached bathroom. And his friend Zamil is in the middle room and the other friend, Mayeen is in another room with another attached bathroom. Another boy named Zahid stayed with them for the first 10 days but later departed because of fever. Mayeen is living in Dhaka for the last 2 years. So he is very much accustomed with the weather and condition here. He has a peculiar type of character. No problem is a problem to him. I have learnt many interesting things about him that can easily make anyone laugh.

For the first 10 days they had to struggle a lot because of gas as this new building hadn’t installed gas line then. So they didn’t keep a Buya (housemaid) then. When Zamil came to Dhaka he bought a mobile set without a warranty but later found problem with the screen. He also found trouble in getting admitted into the couching center he liked. The food of restaurants in Dhaka was uneatable for him. And it sickened him. So the only child of his parents called his mother on one of the first days in Dhaka and said, “I don’t like anything of Dhaka. I bought a mobile phone but those cheats gave me a faulty one. I couldn’t get the admission anywhere yet. And the food is yuck. I’m saying goodbye to Dhaka.” But things settle down gradually.

None of them used mosquito net for the first 10 days. Although it is 5th (US) floor of the building, the mosquito problem is still acute. After 10 days Zahid had Dengue fever. So he left Dhaka for good. Fakhrul and Zamil learnt lesson from it and never slept without the mosquito net put in. But Mayeen has other idea. He as usual sprays insecticide on his whole body and then goes to bed.

Things got tolerable after 1st 2 weeks. They got gas installed and kept a housemaid to cook for them. Zamil and Fakhrul got used to the condition and are more tolerant now. When I asked Fakhrul how the Buya is, he said, “Oh she is nice. We play hide and seek with her.” Hide and seek?? I couldn’t understand its meaning until he clarified.

They kept the Buya for monthly 500tk. She was supposed to come everyday in the morning and make breakfast and lunch for them and come again at afternoon to cook dinner. But she steals food items regularly. If they brought fish or meat she used to take a good part of it with her. She used to take a part of the food she cooked for them along with rice.

One day they brought fish and the Buya cooked it in 6 pieces. After cooking she took two big pieces in a plastic bag, which she brought with her. Zamil saw it and told it to others. But they were too shy to question Buya for this. So after negotiation they decided to teach the buya a lesson in a nice way.
Zamil went to the kitchen and put 2-tea spoon salt in buya’s bag and mixed it well with the fish and then kept the bag where it was. All of them were very happy to be able to give buya a good lesson. But it didn’t pay off, on the evening when buya cooked dinner; the food was so spicy that it burnt everyone’s mouth. They had to spend that night in empty stomach.

After that day they planned that they would not eat fish any more. They will only eat egg, alu bhorta and dal. Now the buya doesn’t have anything to steal.

The other day Mayeen was drinking RC Cola and Zamil wanted to have a share. But Mayeen didn’t give. But when Zamil left his room Mayeen put black tea in it and kept it beside Zamil’s table. But that could never fool Zamil because the buya took that bottle with her without even asking anyone anything.

Now as they don’t eat anything except dal, alu bhorta and egg there is no valuable cooked thing left for the buya to take. So she began to take onion and potatoes. One day when she found that there was an extra egg, she took that with her. When they interrogated her for her this nature and instead of being shamed she said, “In Dhaka every buya does this. It is the system here.”

When I came here after learning the meaning of that “hide and seek” I told them they should not keep a buya just for to cook egg and dal. They better sack her and keep another Buya or try to cook themselves.” So on the next evening Mayeen was preparing to tell Buya not to come here again to cook. But then an amazing thing happened. Buya called Mayeen and said that she had found a new place to cook for and she is no longer interested in working here. Mayeen instantly gave her 11 days’ money and bid farewell.

Fakhrul and his friends now cook themselves. And they are really good cooks.
Allah hafiz.
Zahir.”

|