Zugloul Haider A-------
Founding Member of Bangla Academy
Orion Lodge
-- Rajani Chowdhury Road
Gandaria, Dhaka ----
This is the inscription on the red door of my papa's family home in Gandaria. My grandfather was a writer and Bangla Academy was a sort of writer's guild established in 1955 to promote Bangla language through literary work and research. He named his home, Orion Lodge, after Orion the Hunter in Greek mythology. My favorite part of the house was my papa's bedroom. It was at the tippy-top and had it's own entrance outside the main house.
We visited with neighboring families. People my parents once knew showed up at the houses we were visiting because they had heard from someone else that mommy and papa were there. While ma and I talked with one of the aunties we heard a loud commotion from outside. We thought there was an accident, but when we went out we saw a horse carriage. Everyone in Gandaria was out there gawking at this carriage. The auntie saw my excitement and told, not asked, told the driver to take us once around the block.
Before leaving Gandaria, my parents and I went to the cemetery where both my maternal and paternal grandfathers are buried. On the tops of their graves grow small shrubs. The perfect juxtaposition between life and death. I never met my grandfathers and this was the closest I had ever been to them.
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