O my sweet home Chittagong of good old days!

As was dubbed ‘the mighty queen of the East’, city of Chittagong beautifully nestles between the shore of roaring Bay of Bengal and sublime beauty of hills & hillocks, standing in myriad tranquility; stretches along with greenery abound has it soothing effect invariably in human mind.

A 7th century Chinese traveler and poet  Huen Tsang described Chittagong as a ‘sleeping beauty emerging from mists and water’ To add to this glorious attribute that ancient Chinese poet gave I must say, at this point, that Chittagong is like a precious pink pearl in the womb of golden oyster emerging from the waltzing waves of Bay of Bengal.

Long history of Chittagong reveals that having been attracted by its geo-physical charms and grandeur, scintillating location with gifts of nature; Arab and Portuguese travelers and traders came to Chittagong and established a sea port with a given name Porte-Grande along the shore of Bay of Bengal and the bank of river Karnaphuli--- a gifted natural harbor in the region. During the rule of British Raj, centering on the economic and trading potentials of Chittagong port, Chittagong gained its due importance after Calcutta and became a commercial hub in the eastern region of the subcontinent.

With the given responsibility to maintain roads and alleys in good order and equally maintaining cleanliness of the town, Chittagong Municipality was established in 1882 with a British Commissioner as its Head aided by few elites of the town. With the increase of population and other trading activities during Pakistani rule, Chittagong equally gained a phenomenal growth in its economic activities and became the gateway of the then East- Pakistan over the years.

After the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971 at the cost of 3 million sons & daughters of the soil, with ravages of war and infrastructure totally shattered, under the charismatic leadership of the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,

Bangladesh got a fresh breath and new lease of life with the spirit of independence and took to the road to progress with special attention and focus on Chittagong being the commercial hub and gateway of the country. With scanty and dilapidated infrastructure inherited in post liberation war ravaged era, Chittagong city and the port urgently needed massive development and refurbishment in its existing infrastructure.

Although with the aims and objectives to ensure the planned and systematic growth of the city, Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) was established in 1959, no spectacular growths and developments were seen in pre-liberation era, other than few buildings, roads and alleys, when Chittagong city was just rising from the shadow of rural character and ambience to take the journey to the road to rapid urbanization. After the emergence of Bangladesh from the rubbles and ruins of war in 1971, like other towns in Bangladesh, City of Chittagong was also rising from the ravages of the war with the tumbledown infrastructure.

Over the years of development of infrastructural facilities including public utilities, city of Chittagong has taken its present shape as a home of 5 million people with contributing enormously in national economy.

The intention of this write-up is not to focus and high-light the present development and economic activities that Chittagong is contributing to GDP growth, but to look back at the ambience of Chittagong town in the later part of 1940Sand early-middle part of 1950Sas featured. A sleepy town in the shadow of rural character with only a few activities were in place centering on Chittagong Port and Railway in those days Chittagong stood on.

There were no adequate infrastructure, roads and utility services like electricity, water and sewerage in the township. A single lane brick soled road from Chittagong Port connecting the other parts of town by lanes & alleys was in service with scanty movement of traffic. People used to move mainly on foot and bullock-cart.

Affluent people used to move on Hackney-cart. There were only few hackney-cart stations in Alkaran, Feeringi Bazar, Anderkilla and Chawkbazar areas. There was no public transportation services untill 1954/55 when bus services in a very limited scale were introduced by an enterprising man named Ezhar of Bihari origin popularly called as ‘Bus company’.

There were only two bus routes, as stated, introduced by ‘Bus Company’ Ezhar. Starting from Nooner Gola / Salt Gola (present day Custom House / Port Authority Building Crossing) Bus no: 1(one) would ply through Goshaildanga – Barik Buidling - Bangla Bazar - Majir ghat – Sadarghat – Alkaran – Laldighi, Bakshirhat – Andarkilla – Chawkbazar and stopping at few other areas before concluding its journey to Baized Bostami. Bus No: 2 would ply form Saltgola to Goshaildanga – Barik Building – Agrabad – Pathantooly Chowmohoni – Dewanhat – Tiger Pass – Lalkhan Bazar – GEC crossing – Sholoshahar and covering few other areas with ending at Baizid Bostami. Rickshaw as a means of public transport was introduced in early 1956/57 while hoodless Baby Taxis occupied Roads only in 1958.

Luxury cars like Chevrollete, Cadilac, Vanguard, Bwik, Ford etc. mostly owned by top executives of multinational shipping companies like Shawwallace, Jamesfinlay, Rally Brothers and few other handful rich people mostly came from ancestral heritage and others quickly turned rich as products of Second World War.

Township was mainly confined in Alkaran,  Patharghata, Feeringi Bazar, Anderkilla, Bakshirhat, Chawkbazar areas while Agrabad area which is now buzzing in life, as a commercial district, was a paddy field known as Dakaitta Beel (Dacoits’ field) presumably Dacoits’ would play havoc in that area in those old days.

Khulsi Hills and other adjoining posh residential areas were the habitat of foxes, black tigers and other wild animals roaming in the wilderness casually making howling and growling sound when darkness would fall specially in winter time. Piercing the bosoms of standing hills, Tiger Pass ran narrow which was so named because tigers would pass through when curtain of darkness would fall in eerie silence.

With movements of tigers lost in the mist of time, the Pass is now turned a  white metal thoroughfare occupied by whizzing wheeled moving beasts day and night where tranquility that prevailed in the Pass once upon a time is now gone with the wind to exist only in the phantom form in the niche of memory.God fearing by nature and having tremendous reverence for saints, people of Chittagong used to visit different shrines of saints spreading over Chittagong town and it’s adjoining areas.

Among the shrines, the shrine of Bayezid Bostami was unique of it’s kind for it’s location being nestled in hill with a big tank laden with big sized sea turtle named Gozali-Mozali, believed to be genie in captivity in the tank by the heavenly spell tasked by saint Sultan Bayezid Bostami long time ago. Devotees would visit the tank and feed the Gozali-Mozali with meat and banana hooked in handy bamboo-stick with the desire of fulfilling many wishes of their own.

In 1960s, devotees used to visit the shrine of Bayezid Bostami from distant locations of the town by a day-long journey by bullock-cart and after finishing rituals would return home with peace and complacency in mind. People still visit the shrine with utmost devotion to the spot which no longer remains as serene and pristine as was before due to hey-wild ugly urbanization.

Legend has it, dating back time immemorial, Chittagong was a habitat of genie in creeping darkness. After years-long meditation and haggling with genie, the saint Badr Awlia succeeded to gain a small piece of land at Cheragi-Pahar only good for kindling a flame in a small Chati (earthen lamp) which eventually warded off genie thus making the area good for human habitation over the years.

Associated with the name of Chati(earthen lamp) the area was thus named Chatigaon or Chattogram. Cheragi-Pahar where Badr Awlia sparked flame still stands tall in the intersection of Jamal Khan Road and Momin Road, while the shrine of Badr Awlia stands at nearby area called Badr-Pati.

 With a Catholic Church and Christian Missionary School, Feeringee Bazar and Patharghata were the hubs of sophisticated and cultural activities enlivened by Anglo-Indians and members of native Christian community. As far as public education was concerned, Chittagong town offered a few good schools like Chittagong Collegiate School, Chittagong Muslim High School, Chittagong Municipal High School, Kazem Ali High Schools and St. Placid and St.

Scholastic High School --- pursuing Cambridge curriculum. Heritage Buildings like Chittagong Circuit House, Court Building, Chittagong Railway Building (CRB) Chittagong Collegiate School Buildings, Muslim High School Building, Chittagong College Building and few other structures still stand high as testimonies of Chittagong’s heritage. At the passage of time rural ambience of Chittagong town slowly waned to make space for urbanizations with wide roads and government colonies those came up in 1958 and its successive years.

Chittagong Municipality took the responsibly, in hand, to light the street with electric bulb and fix up water taps in different crossings and cross-sections of the town for public consumption of drinking water from its source. With a mammoth establishment of its own, Railway would generate its own electricity and would supply to all Railways and Port establishment and a portion to Chittagong Municipality for electrification of certain areas of the town. Railway would draw drinking water from Foy’s Lake source.

With deep-tubewell sourcing, a Water-Works was set up by Municipality at Dampara to cater to the need of clean water supply to very limited areas of the town. As supply of drinking water for public consumption by the Municipally was very meager, people would depend on crystal-clear source of drinking water from big tanks and ponds scattered over different areas without getting infected by water-borne diseases.

This is only a sketchy pen-picture that I could humbly draw on Chittagong town of bygone days with considerable trepidation. With the wind of changes, those ambiences have been blown always with installing a new neighborhood of concrete jungles; constantly billowing black smokes and emanating sonic hazards, by mechanized wheeled monsters on the street, where howls of foxes and chirps of crickets are no more heard in the loud silence of nights.

Equally, no playful children make their paper-boats afloat any more in the morning in the running water cascadingdown the incessant night-long downpour falling on tin-roof house amid relentless croaks of frogs and house-toads. Beauty of running water in rainy days are now hideously replaced by grotesque facade of waterlogging inundating the town knee-deep to the misery of the dwellers.

Gone are those days in Chittagong when boatmen in river Karnafully would sing their mystic songs with the pace & rhythm of rowing the Sampan in tranquil waters. Rowing Sampans are now mostly replaced by engine-boat creating ear-splitting rattling sound. Also gone are those days when shepherd boys would play their bamboo flute with melodies in the twilight hour, with skies draped in crimson shade, when they would call their cattle home.

With the humdrum of life, those sweet melodies of good old days buzzing in the air in Chittagong are now grisly sunk in the morass of stagnation to stay only as distant cacophony in the recesses of imagination that never to come back again in reality. O my sweet home Chittagong, I miss you a lot being in your old shape of good old days immersed in serenity abound.
 

The writer is a former Civil Servant.