Experience Pohela Boishak
Experience Bangladesh CEO, Sarah spent Bengali New Years in Bangladesh last year. She and her VP of Operations Najm showed up at the Arts department of Dhaka University 3 days before the largest festival of the year. All the students of Charukola (Arts Faculty) were in groups working on different paper mache sculptures and masks. There were also people who painted beautiful folk art on earthen bowls called shora. Sarah was in heaven, surrounded by colors and such creativity.
They were testing the experience so that they could offer it at a trip this year! They painted the earthen bowls, even though it turned out very different from the professional Art students’ work. The next day, they graduated to painting colorful masks and painted birds and fishes on the walls inside the Art campus. On the third day, it felt like they had earned their right of passage. Sarah had been eying the head of the main elephant for 3 days. She finally pointed to it, smiled and said, “Thats mine.” For the next 2 hours, infinite layers of gum and paper went on to create the head and ears of the elephant. She then moved onto working on the main set of walls that get painted every year with a theme of pictures.
All the pictures were already sketched out my the master teachers. The rest of the volunteers had to just stay within the lines and put in the coded colors. Sarah was asked to paint a wall pink. Half way through it, the teachers changed their mind and asked Sarah to paint the rest of it violet!They had spent 11 hrs in 3 days at Charukola. To prepare for the largest celebration of the year, Sarah decided to decorate her own sari with jute border and coconut buttons!
On the day of the festival, they walked to the parade that began at Charukola. They had never seen such a wave of people carrying the masks, the banners, the sculptures etc. for miles. For breakfast they had Pantha bhaath (fermented rice), Hilsa curry, mashed potatoes and more.
The energy was vibrant with flute musicians, drums, women dressed in red and white saris, with fresh flowers braided in their hair and hands painted in red. The men wore white.
There was live music in different areas, good food and memories of a lifetime! This experience is a must see and do in Bangladesh if you happen to be there on April 14th. For the rest of the people who live in Bangladesh, experienced Pohela Boishak lately? Join us on a 2 day trip to see what the hoopla is all about!
