Word for the Travel Wise (03/19/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

This
evening I went hunting for a word that would knock your socks off and wow the natives in the lesser explored world of
Bangladesh, but the results weren’t so fruitful. In fact I think I’m even a little bit more confused about certain
rules the native tongue possesses than before I embarked on this linguistic journey. So to save myself from any type of
embarrassment in this lesson I’ll throw the word at you, but I’ll leave it to you to really further your research and
make sure the word flies in the south Asian land.

Today’s word is a Bangla (Bengali) word used in Bangladesh:

bhromon –
travel

If I’m not mistaken the word above is not a pure Bangla word, but one that was
borrowed into the language from Sanskrit. The Bengali Wiki
explains that native Bangla words do not allow initial consonant clusters and the syllabic structure is CVC. Do you
follow? Whatever the case this word may not be a true Bangla word, but chances are you’ll certainly hear it once or
twice in Bangladesh. What will
probably impress the locals more is your extensive knowledge of where the word does come from, but are we really
concerned with wooing people with our language skills or just trying to get by?

Web resources for Bangla
are few, but you can pick up quite a few words reading (not skimming) through the Wiki and from this Bangalinet site which has a small tutorial on how to write in the
script. Beyond those two I’m sure there are others, but as I mentioned above it was like pulling teeth to get this word.
With that being said class is dismissed.

Edward Burtynsky in Brooklyn

by Erik Olsen on

Well I’m a day late and a dollar short on this one, but I couldn’t help but post about this amazing exhibit anyway. I got wind that the photographs of Edward Burtynsky were on display by reading Gothamist, but realized that yesterday was the last day of the show and so I’d have to hurry. Well, hurry I did. I hustled over to the Brooklyn Art Museum, braving freezing temperatures to catch the fleeting moments of the show dedicated to this photographer. Why put forth so much effort? Well, you wouldn’t ask that if you could have seen the work.

Burtynsky’s photos are kind of a mixture of Andreas Gursky’s epic large format, highly detailed and richly colorful photographs and the soulful, resonant, wonderfully composed photos of Sebastao Salgado. He is probably NOT up to par with either of these two, but he draws from them both. His photos show places that have been affected by man, places like quarries and mines and the ship-breaking yards of Bangladesh (also shot exquisitely by Salgado).

I confess I was very much pulled into his work because I would like to launch a project of my own to document the wrecked places on earth, and to do so in the panoramic format. A few shots I have done around India and, well, Brooklyn, provide an example of how well, I think the panoramaic format would lend itself to doing this.

Anyhow, yesterday was the last day of the Edward Burtynsky exhibit, but I wanted to bring him, as a person and photographer, to your attention in case you have never heard of him.

Bangladeshi Foods

by Adrienne Wilson on

This morning I took a little time to think about places I normally never think about, the ones that cross my mind every blue moon or maybe one we’ve never blogged much about. If my memory serves me correct we haven’t focused too much on Bangladesh in the past, so today I’m providing a small sampling on Bangladeshi foods.

The first thought that comes to mind when hearing Bangladesh is another border country a lot like India. (I could get blasted for that one.) The people, the food, the culture, etc. Though my assumptions could be very wrong it doesn’t appear that the food strays too far from the Indian foods I’ve had in the past. This Virtual Bangladesh site is a wonderful place to start if you want to start fine tuning your Bangladeshi cooking skills. Rice, bread, poultry, fish and sweets recipes are all listed with the level of difficulty if you’re worried about totally messing things up. Start with the Bangladeshi Egg Haloa or the Shandesh, a fresh cheese dessert, which are both rather easy to prepare.

Photo of the Day: (5/04/05)

by Erik Olsen on

I have long wanted to go to Bangladesh to see the ship-breaking yards of Chittagong. A while back, I saw a series of photos by Brazlian photographer Sabastiao Salgado on the yards and it blew my mind. So today’s POTD comes from a great site that features some photos of the yards.

Follow the Blogger

by Erik Olsen on

Follow Andy the Hobo Blogger as he makes his way down to Marrakech from Spain. The guy has been all over. His posts go pretty far back and it looks like he’s been everywhere from Germany to Iraq to Nepal to Bangladesh. No kidding. There’s some pictures scattered here and there too, giving some nice visual flavor to the posts.

I’ve been trying to figure out how he pays for all this amazing travel, not to mention how he manages to find internet connections in all these place. I know, I know, Internet cafes are everywhere. Still, follow the guy’s path and you’ll be amazed how often he manages to post. He’s a pretty good writer, insightful in a simple way, and manages to capture the essence of a place nicely without to much “I’m just a dumb foreigner” attitude. You also can’t help but be a little jealous reading him. Here he is riffing on life in Goa, India:

The routine of life has begun, and I can walk the beach in the morning, and watch the sunset. Life is simple. This is how I like to live. A pair of short, a couple of dollars worth of the local currency in my pocket and a lot of people doing nothing but have conversations.

Ah, yes, if only life could always be so easy. Keep on rockin Andy.