My first step on the plain land

This blog is all about how I felt when I first stepped out from Hill Tracts (South-Eastern part of Bangladesh) to Chattogram (the second-largest city in Bangladesh).

It was perhaps late 1999 when I was gasping for a chance to remediate my failure in the higher secondary school certificate (HSC) examination and secure a place for an undergraduate program in a University. I was like in the ocean without a radar. I had never been outside of my home district – Bandarban. Moreover, I did not have any clue about where to live in Chattogram, and which coaching center to get admitted in. Luckily, I got one of my classmates (Anis) with me who was also planning to go out to Chattogram for attending university admission coaching. He had a senior brother who was helping him to find a place to stay and a mess to eat. I took that chance of tagging with him.

One fine morning, we began our journey to Chattogram. The day we took the bus to Chattogram was memorable and perhaps the ‘Turing Point of My Life’. My family helped me pack up the necessary commodities I would probably need to survive the initial period. We were told that we need to get off the bus at ‘Rahattar Pool’ – a place way before the Bahaddarhat Bus Terminal (the bus terminal that connects Chattogram city to the rest of the south-eastern regions). Since then Rahattar Pool has become a name in my life. I can remember how frequently we were knocking the bus supervisor to let us know once we are at Rahattar Pool as we were new and did not have any idea.

My first entry to the mess at Chakbazar (a coaching center-rich area in Chattogram Metropolitan) was the one that I will never forget in my life. For a moment I thought this punishment is way more than I deserve. Particularly, the smell which I can feel anytime if I want. Fighting for toilet in the morning, eating food which my tastebuds were not accustomed to, living 4 persons in an approximately 100 square-feet area, sleeping on the floor, all those I think were the lateral forces which made me prepared for getting erected as a person.

I got admitted to the Index Coaching Center targeting public universities. After classes, I used to walk through the streets and alleys of different parts of the metropolitan city. Every time I went out to a new place in the Chattogram metro area, I was dumbfounded by its infrastructures, tall buildings, night lightings, busy city life, and so on.

Although this was my first time outside the hill tracts regions, my journey as my own actually began after the secondary school certificate (SSC) examination when I got admitted to Bandarban Government College in 1997 (please see a separate blog on my college life).

Reminiscing memories with fondness after all these years certainly gives an indication of the pains, frustrations, disappointments, and surprises in my early life were actually the enabling factors. Today’s discomforts perhaps are paving the way for a better tomorrow. We all should have a positive mind to embrace all that comes today and act prudently to shape up the future.