Dear MA,
How are you?!?
I have not seen you live for one month and eighteen days!
Live?...lol…as in person, I go through your pictures though…..lol….hahahah….you get confused with ‘lol’....’laughing out loud’ MA!
I know: it is not the longest I have not seen you. We have been apart longer. Nevertheless, yes, like previously, we do not have the luxury to hop onto a bus and come up to Dhaka or Chittagong
Therefore: MA how is it going? The last time we talked you are saying that you are having daily two hourly black outs and water shortages and the summer is just starting!
Oh my! I forgot it would be Pohela Boisakh soon!
Who is going to buy you that red saree MA? Moreover, FA the Punjabi? And Rashna a dress?
Are you going to make Panta-vaat? The cheater’s one: by putting the freshly boiled rice onto cold water? Are you going to bring out the last Fried Beef from the freezer? And fry up those prawns and Hilsha?
Will RB send those packets from Vikrampoor Sweets, filled with the terracotta-red, glossy, syrupy-sweet globes of Lal-mohan? Is Boro Ammu going to send those famous mixed platters of Vortas and Vaajis? Will Choti go around kick up her old heels around in red and white sarees, with feet painted Vermillion with Alta, heavily ringing those silver anklets?
Will Dhanmonndi Road# 1 be filled, jam-packed to the hilt with all those rickshaws, themselves piled high with all the people? Loudly blowing the whistles? Wearing all the colorful visors? Faces painted bright with Alpona. Girls with arms heavy with red bangles….I miss that tingling noise…bright with Henna? .Guys resplendent in just their attitude?
Every corner will have their own band of musicians crooning out songs from Lalon, Tagore, and Nazrul! Deep baritone recitals of maudlin poems! Speeches from the local politicians!
Everyone will be out MA! Everyone! Eyes and teeth sparkling with glee. Bodies sweating, trembling as if on ecstasy! Everyone will be doing the jig to the strange, ancient, tribal tune! Out to celebrate the New Year, bring in the tides of good times, wrecking all the bads and the olds out of their system.
Oh! Gaaawwwwed!! MA!! Why did you say I am better off here?
As I write this, it just shows how I am better off. Does not it?
Shuvo Nobo Borsho MA! Happy Bangla New Year! Hope it goes better than mine!
Love,
A