Page 55 - GOTIL (ENG) Sample

Village Life in Bangladesh 23

populated country — 120 million people in an area little
more than half the size of Britain — the great majority
live in villages. There people have little access to modern
18
ways, which is one reason that the original Bengali culture
has not fully broken down.

Village life in Bengal is still in many ways unchanged
since time immemorial. Most roads are dirt tracks. People
generally live many miles from the nearest paved roads
and are accustomed to walking or cycling long distances.
The air is pure. There aren’t many factory-produced
goods. Most houses are made of mud with grass thatch.
Coconut, palm, banana, and betel nut trees abound. The
blue sky, broad rivers, and water-traffic lifestyle pervade
the atmosphere. It’s easy to imagine Lord Caitanya’s
saṅkīrtana party emerging from behind the trees.

Throughout the time that I spent in Bangladesh, most
villages did not have electricity. And in those with electric
lines, the power would come for only an hour or two per
day and at low voltage.

Since Bangladeshis cannot avail themselves of most
conveniences offered by modern technology, they are
protected from much of its degrading influence. The claws
of mass media have yet to penetrate Bangladeshi villages,
and most people reside too far away from a cinema to
go to one. Furthermore, films shown in Bangladesh are
not as degraded as the gross sex-and-violence-ridden

18. Some microstates, like Singapore, are more densely populated
than Bangladesh.