Out of place, out of time

(This article was first published in our October 2008 issue.) 

Cities, even as they grow and swell with the passing of the years, are said to retain their essential individual characteristics. But not, it seems, Dhaka. Has there ever been a city so far removed from the incarnations of its past? Now, it is a truism that all cities change with time, and cities in Southasia – which have experienced unprecedented growth, development, urbanisation and industrialisation over the past 50 or 60 years – have almost uniformly metamorphosed from colonial backwaters into exploding megalopolises. Still, though, there is something in Dhaka's extraordinary transformation that seems to go beyond the typical.

Dhaka today is utterly unrecognisable as the sleepy, charming, tranquil town it was even half a century ago. There is something thoroughly startling about this transmutation from a genteel and sedate town of tree-lined avenues, ponds, canals and spacious bungalows set amidst overgrown gardens – to this present incarnation as a dizzying metropolis of 12 million people, blaring automobiles and block after block of unpainted concrete apartments, as far as the eye can see. But the difference is more than merely in the physical transformation; it is also one of tone and feel. Dhaka today is a high-octane megacity, where life is fast and furious (except for the traffic, which remains slow and torpid), where anger and violence simmer beneath the surface.