If you learnt Bengali at your school, you must have learnt that Pangkaj -means something that grows in the mud. And while anything can grow in muddy silts, it's universally implied in Bengali that this precious is a lotus! Yes, lotuses grow in muddy swamps/ponds. I first saw a swamp full of lotuses at my 8/9 years of age and since then I have been searching one to enjoy the beauty of this flower. At last the chance came in. A few days earlier we took a journey towards Narsingdi. One may never heard about the place. Dholadia. If you take the road towards Narsingdi from Dhaka through Ghorashal you can spend some time with lotuses on the way and take a break from tiring urban concretes. Take the road that goes to the left past the CNG station just after crossing the newly built Shahid Moyejuddin bridge over river Shitalakkhya. From there you can either take a taxi or an autorickshaw (some battery-powered scooters) to reach Koroitola, Dholadia. The lotus swamp is on your right at Koroitola. However, to reach the white lotuses, you'll have to walk through the village. It's too tricky to give you a direction. For this you have to take the left road at the iron bars before Koroitola. Then you'll see a school and a Krishna (Hindu) temple on your right. Ask anybody for white lotuses and they'll show you the way to the gorgeous whites.
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| The white lotus |
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| Some blooming buds and a white queen sitting in the middle of the green guards |
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| Here comes another. I am so fond of the lotus leaves. They can be used as a substitute of umbrellas...I am kidding! :) |
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| I am just taken aback by the white and green beauties, it's a kingdom of white lotuses |
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| A blooming solitary princess |
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| These Togors (can't tell you the English name for these) on roadside |
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| Lotuses of all stages: waxing and weaning |
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| A white princess being born... |
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| And she comes.......the pretty pink Poddo (lotus)...the tall grasses failed to sabotage her beauty |
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| These kids were playing football........my long-lost childhood cried out, I never knew in my childhood that I was going to miss it so much! |
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| Pink lotuses in the swamp. These are fewer in number. Locals said that's because people pick and sell them on busy Dhaka streets....you see they make these green swamps lotus-barren just to make these available for you in the city. Also you might have noticed that the leaves are submerged. Probably, lotuses don't grow well if the water level is too high. |
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| A dragon-fly......as green as it had to be to camouflage the twig it's sitting on |
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| A blooming pink princess |
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| A young pink princess, those purplish buds behind are hyacinths. |
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| Close-up: green guards around |
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| The queen sees her mirror: Narcissist Lotus in the swamp |
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| This pretty lady is at the verge of losing her tender petals, yet how pretty she is! |
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| A typical local courtyard of a jute grower: golden fibres are being dried. This is a dear place nearby |
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| This Brahminy Kite (Shonkhochil-in Bengali) was singing a sad song (on a coconut tree) |
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| Back to the courtyard again. The cone created with the jute-sticks would be sold for 20-30 tk each. These would be used as firewoods. Some might use these for fencing their gardens. Harvesting and trading jute seems to be a business of losses. It takes a very hard labour to grow and trade jute. |
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