Time to pic things up!

On Thursday, I submitted the manuscript of "Making tuberculosis history: community-based solutions for millions" to our publisher.  We've reserved a room at the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease conference in Lille, France in October to formally launch the book--we'll have hard copies in hand by then (insh.....my latest abbrev for "inshallah").

Banani bridge--I hop over the median
every day on my way to work...

While by no means does this mean that I can sit around and twiddle my thumbs, it was a big day for me.  It also gave me a chance to unplug for almost a full, two-day weekend, which was, well, awesome!  I see why the unions wanted them in the first place....I'd kind of forgotten what it was like to have free time.

Some of the the highlights included:
1.  Riding around in a rickshaw in Bashundara.....on the pouring rain (I think it was the South Asian version of country music....mama tried to raise me better....).  One cool thing about Dhaka is that it ends abruptly; you go from rows of high-rise apartments to farmland in the span of a block.
2.  Learning bengali proverbs--evidently they all involve ketal (jackfruit).  Such as, "don't oil your mustache while the ketal is still ripening in the tree." (translation: don't count your chickens before they hatch).  I've decided to Banglicize American proverbs.  Such as:
You can't have your ketal and eat it too.
Don't look a gift ketal in the mouth.
No such thing as a free ketal

3.  Going to a SUPER sketchy club for Mike's going away party (pic below).  We got pat down twice on the way in; Miji's water and candy got confisticated, Susmita was allowed to take through her bag of chocolate chip cookies I'd given her, but barely (I was ready to fight them on that one!  No way those things would be waiting for her when we came out).  The pat-down room doubled as a changing room; the transformation of women from their street clothes of colorful salwar kameez into tight jeans, clingy shirts, and amounts of eyeliner that makes Johnny Depp look conservative kind of reminded me of the roller skating rink in Cary where I hung out in middle school--we'd sometimes change clothes once we got there.  But this way was scarier.  I know I'm not supposed to judge a ketal by it's cover, but seriously, I was waiting outside for Miji and Susmita by myself and I slunk back inside because I was scared of the vampire girls.
The place itself was special because you could order a beer.  Normally there was also bowling (yes, this place had an indian restaurant, chinese restaurant, dance club, two security checks, pool tables, bowling and beer......"sketch" is an understatement), but not on Fridays (and it might be under construction.....).  So we just hung out instead.  Given that I hate bowling, no complaints from my end. I  managed to engineer a bet between Mike and Susmita over whether the "skinnamarikidinkydink" (spelling?) song was written by Canadians--loser had to sing a song chosen by the winner (see point 5 for more details).

Where all the cool kids hang out on Friday night.....

4.  Checking out a new trendy place in Dhanmondi with my friends Mitu and Shiplu!  Connected to the Dhaka Art Center (nope, skipped that!), Ajo is a new restaurant made entirely out of recycled materials.  Exposed brick, black and white postcards, quiet ambiance, fantastic kebabs, chicken salad (with peanut dressing!), and mango juice.....I was happy.

Not every day you see someone wearing a shirt from
FabIndia (clothing chain in India recommended by
Lonely planet, which is why I make fun of it so
energetically).  He is posing for this picture; normally he
looks more....."officially licensed to save babies"-ish, if
you know what I mean.......

5.  We celebrated Miji's birthday last night, even though her birthday is today.  We went out for North Korean food and Pyongyang in Banani--I have a feeling it might have been tastier and more plentiful than what we would have found in Pyongyang, proper.  The whole meal I was looking forward to karaoke.  I got a surprise though when the waitresses came in and started monopolizing the machine--with songs in Korean!!  We had to wrestle the microphones away from them.  Susmita and I kicked things off with "I want it that way" by the Backstreet boys.  Yeah....things only got better from there.  Nothing like a little Metallica, Bon Jovi, Avril Lavigne and of course, the spice girls (Yo tell me what you want...).  Turns out that skinamarwhatever is indeed by Canadians, according to Susmita, so Mike had to sing "Girls just wanna have fun" by Cindi Lauper.  Pretty fab, kind of like his shirt......  Farhan really took the cake (metaphorically, no real birthday cake) with "killing me softly."  That song will never sound the same to me again.  You know how they say, a picture's worth a thousand ketals?  Exactly.

And that's a weekend!  Good stuff.  Today there was yet another hartal, which ends tomorrow at noon insh(allah).  Businesses are getting mad and talking about "launching a campaign to form public opinion against the hartals" (I don't actually get what that means exactly), and the opposition who planned the hartals is threatening to continue them during Ramadan (next month) if the government doesn't address their issues.  That sounds horrible to me--you get a day off work and can't eat anything.  Kind of like cutting of your nose to spite your ketal; it's just silly.

Pictures compliments of Mike!  Thanks dude!  Hopefully Susmita will be handing over some video footage of the karaoke night so you all can experience the magic for yourself.......