The Vampires of Dhaka

I was told to be present at Azimpur graveyard. The night was blessed under a full moon, making the whole area eerily visible. I figured that since they had called me here, they must be around. As I was tiptoeing around the graves, my phone blared out "Ekdin Toh Chole Jabo" by the late great Azam Khan. I was receiving a phone call.

"Hello, did you reach the graveyard?" the person on the other side of the phone inquired.

"Yes, I did. I'm inside now and looking for you guys. Where are you?"

"What? No, what the heck, get out of there. Take a left from the graveyard, walk for about five minutes and you'll see a student mess. It's house number 42. Do you have Google Maps? I'll send you the location," he corrected me.

After that miscommunication, I successfully managed to locate their lair. I rang the doorbell and a tall lanky man welcomed me in. It was a large room with rows of computers, and the whole place was lit red. Behind those computers were the people I was searching for.

"Welcome, my friend. I am Roktim Hussain, the founder of Blood Bag," the same lanky man now spoke up, with a wide grin that showed his unusually large canines.

"Hi, I'm Troyee. Troyee Roman. Nice to meet you. I'm here to interview you on your operations?"

"Yes, certainly. I'll be glad to answer your questions. It's not very often that we vampires get to talk to someone from the outside world. Don't be afraid. Would you like a drink?"

Before I could decline, I was presented with a wine glass filled with a red liquid. I thought this had to be a test or initiation of some sort and I had to gain their trust. I took a big gulp.

"It—it's grape juice," I said, bewildered.

"We have chosen to stop drinking blood. Life is precious, and we've made it our duty to preserve this valuable energy instead of letting it drain into our stomachs. Now, you may begin with your questions."

"Wow, you guys are so cool. Anyway, I need to leave pretty quickly so my first question is, what's with all the computers?"

"One of our duties as protectors of the night is to be active on Facebook at all times. This is to be vigilant of any patient who needs blood. Once we come across a post, we create a ticket noting down their blood group, the quantity of blood required, and the hospital they're in."

"Can't you guys just make an app where they can just directly request you?" I tried to sound smart.

"We've been planning on doing just that but we need a large amount of seed funding. We went to several venture capital firms but they all think it's just a bloody mess. We even planned on partnering up with a ride-sharing service to swiftly suck and deliver, but all they care about is delivering burgers dipped in sauce," the lanky man said, annoyed.

What they have described is a well-known phenomenon in the start-up world, where flashy ideas get money thrown at them while the important ones like Blood Bag have to beg for loose change.

"It's a sad reality, isn't it? Let's jump to the next subject. How do you exactly get the blood?"

"So, after assigning tickets to our employees, they venture out to search for any criminals lurking around, and trust me, this place is full of them. After they find their specific target, it's just a process of jumping on them and sucking them enough to give them a scare but not kill them. We don't want to take lives."

"What about the risk of infecting them?"

"You see, Troyee, medical science has advanced a lot since the olden days of stakes and garlic. Expert surgeons in our community can easily cut off the supply of venom to our fangs."

"Let's move on to some technical questions. Where do you exactly store the blood?"

"In our teeth."

"All of it?"

"We have big teeth."

"Are they, uhmm, big enough?"

"They get the job done."

I confess. There were pretty big.

"Alright, and how do you know which blood group a particular criminal has?"

"We take a quick sip. If it's the right group we do our deed, if not, we simply defuse the situation and give them a good scare straight out of the movies."

"So, how exactly do you deliver it to the patient?"

"Well, we either shoot the blood into the blood bags once we reach the hospital, or we bite the patient and shoot it directly into their veins. The latter is more efficient but doctors are a bit iffy about that procedure."

"And the patient is not harmed in any way?"

"It's pretty safe. Usually."

"That's great, I guess. And how do you feel once you've helped them?"

"Honestly, it's amazing. When we see them for the first time we are jubilant. When we prepare to bite them and they faint at the sight of our canines, we get depressed. When they recover and leave the hospital, we celebrate. It's a rollercoaster of emotions, there's nothing quite like it," expressed the cheerful man.

It seems like they genuinely enjoy helping others, although their method of doing so is questionable.

"Let's go to the rooftop, shall we? It's a beautiful night, and you wouldn't want to miss it," proposed Roktim.

Something just pulled me towards everything they offered. I just went along with them without any questions asked as if they could never be in the wrong. We sat under the white glowing ball in the sky, in a circle of our own, on the square rooftop. I had only one question in mind then, so I asked them.

"You've been persecuted for a long time, and people still think you're a bane to this society. How does that make you feel?"

"It wasn't always like this. We were once seen as noble people here. We're originally from Puran Dhaka, and we had these large mansions where we were hospitable to everyone, from our own to outsiders."

"But vampires drink blood." 

"We've personally substituted blood for red grape juice. As far as the blood drinking is concerned, all vampires stopped preying on humans ages ago. We've been drinking the blood of other animals since then, just as humans consume their meat."

"If that wasn't the problem then what changed people's perceptions towards you?"

"I don't know. We didn't do anything wrong as far as I know. Everything just gradually changed. People kept getting divided due to the formation of an 'us versus them' narrative, we being included in the 'them'. A lot of them drove us out to get our lands. They just didn't like us because we had bigger teeth, because we were different."

"Have you tried to make them understand?"

"We've tried, we've tried a lot. Now we're just tired. We applied for jobs, started businesses, but nobody wants to be associated with us. No one even rents their houses to us – partly because we're vampires, partly because most of us are bachelors or bachelorettes. That is why you had to come to a student mess. We've tried every possible way to integrate, but when humans shove away their own kind, how will they be able to accept another kind?"

I couldn't ask any more after that. I had a strong feeling to look into myself before trying to get why they do what they do. With that I ended my interview and wished them the best. Before going we said our goodbyes at the main door for about half an hour, and they presented me with two unopened bottles of grape juice to take home.

There's one thing I can say for sure — you can take the vampires out of Puran Dhaka but you can't take the Puran Dhaka out of vampires.

Shoaib Ahmed Sayam likes to torture himself by watching fake sports and Vietnamese cartoons. Send help at: fb.com/ooribabamama