There is a world outside Dhaka

Growing up in Pabna Sadar, I was accustomed to being called an urbanite by my cousins and relatives who lived in the slightly rural areas of Pabna upazilas. I also noticed how eager the people from the surrounding upazilas were to migrate to the city in search of livelihood and hoping to settle permanently, as the Sadar has always been the financial and educational hub of our district.

However, I was baffled when I first moved to Dhaka for college. Instead of being treated like an urbanite, in Dhaka, I found myself being treated quite the opposite. Also, I was frequently asked about where my "graamer bari", or village home, was. It took me a while to realise that by village home, they actually meant my hometown.

But, as I started to fit in, I noticed yet another use of this term, and it was not a positive one. Apparently, a handful of Dhakaites use it to underrate other cities of Bangladesh as they consider (and treat) the rest of Bangladesh outside of Dhaka as underdeveloped and lacking modern amenities.

Since Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and this megacity is the industrial, financial and entertainment centre of our country, therefore, it may seem natural that they would view the inhabitants of other districts as rustic. While that may be true to some extent, the reason behind such misconception is nothing other than ignorance. Speaking from my experience, the Pabna Sadar possesses every criterion required to be called a full-fledged city.

The agricultural economy of Pabna has long since been transformed to an industrial one, with rice, jute, cotton, sugar and pharmaceutical industries making Pabna an economically important district of Bangladesh. The country's first nuclear power plant is being constructed in Rooppur of Pabna. Apart from being an industrial centre, it has a pretty good healthcare system, along with the only public mental hospital in Bangladesh being located here. As an educational hub, Pabna Sadar houses numerous government and private colleges and ranked universities like Pabna Medical College and Pabna University of Science and Technology. The administrative capital harbours vibrant arts and cultural scenes, such as public libraries, cinema halls, restaurants serving local and exotic delicacies and dazzling celebrations of both indigenous and international festivals. Overall, a good transportation network and developed infrastructures have greatly contributed in shaping the Sadar into a developed city.

My point here is that some people in Dhaka are just parochial to notice that like Pabna, there are lots of full-fledged cities all over Bangladesh which provide its inhabitants with modern facilities, celebrate different cultural events within the communities and are playing an active role in the country's economy. So, the tendency to depreciate other cities based on preconceived notions is downright wrong.

While it's true that other cities will never get as much attention as that of Dhaka city, these cities are nonetheless significant for Bangladesh. Besides contributing to the country's economy, these cities often end up contributing a significant part of the talent in Dhaka based industries as well. Such ignorant mischaracterisation of places outside Dhaka is a problem, as it further perpetuates the social and economic centralisation around Dhaka that our country suffers from. Maybe we'd all be better off if people from Dhaka got off their high horse for once.

The author has given up on alchemy and has decided to buy a dinghy just to set it on fire. Send him tips to keep his cool at rainakkhanreal@gmail.com