Page 51 - GOTIL (ENG) Sample

Village Life in Bangladesh 19

of trees and villages here or there. Villages are built on
whatever high land is available. If there is no high ground
in a given locale, villagers come together to raise up
some earth and construct houses there. A less common
alternative is to build houses of bamboo or wood, on
bamboo platforms. But such flimsy structures cannot
long withstand strong currents. Mud embankments are
also erected along rivers to defend villages, towns, and
fields. Although this affords some protection, no human
effort can control the fury of nature. When rivers in spate
break their banks, huge areas of crops and houses and
sometimes even larger towns may be devastated.

Once during the monsoon I was traveling in the Sylhet
district of northeast Bangladesh. Sylhet has the most
extreme climate in Bangladesh — hottest in summer,
coldest in winter, wettest in the rains. Because the dirt-
track road was an impassable quagmire, we were going by
boat to Sachna. The town stood like an island in the ocean,
surrounded by inundated fields as far as the eye could see.
Large waves washed into the streets at the edge of town,
as if to devour it. Tremendous rain was still falling. That
day we did kīrtana, sitting in the temple before rustic-
looking Deities of Jagannātha, Baladeva, and Subhadrā.
We had brought a big trunk full of books, somehow or
other keeping them dry in spite of incessant downpour.
One by one people came, braving the rain, to see the
sādhus who had come in the deluge. By the end of the
day we had sold all the books.