I know next to nothing about Bangladesh. I was born near
Boston, and have never even been to
California.
At work, however, not only is my boss from Bangladesh, but so is another man I work with frequently. He's around forty years old, has two children, and plays amateur cricket. He speaks with a thick Bengali accent, making whatever he says, I quote, "Sound like he just smoked a spliffy."
In conversation with this man, it was revealed that as a child, his father had been a revolutionary in the civil war of 1971 that was waged against Pakistan. His father, while having his two daughters sing the national anthem of Bangladesh (written by Tagore, a man of Calcutta), burnt the flag of Pakistan and raised up the flag of Bangladesh. For that, he was reported to Pakistani authorities and it was ordered that he be shot on sight.
And so this man's father disapeared for a year, and the family had no idea whether he was alive or dead. The father survived, living in hiding with sympathisers throughout the countryside. This man I work with, meanwhile, fled with his mother, going from house to house. The day after they left their own house in Dakha, the capital, it was looted and burned. This man remembers most vividly an image of, "going down a river at night, and the oarsman, up in the front, would have to go very, very slowly, because the river was completely full of dead people." Other times, they would be attacked in their current residence and forced to flee again, such as one occurrence in which "my house was being shot at, and burned, and we had to dive so that the bullets would shoot over our heads, and then... the rain just came out right over the house."
This man and his family would survive, but three million people would not, and three million women would be raped. The war would be won when India was forced to enter; one million Bengali refugees had ran over the border, putting a completely insurmountable burden upon the dilapidated state of India. India was supported by Russia, and Pakistan by The United States.
This man went to college and got a job at Mellon Trust in Everrett, Massachusetts. Today, he has a cube in a quiet spot, and sometimes he falls asleep, but no one catches him.
That's about all that I know of Bangladesh.