The empire strikes back

That's right.  We have a hartal today (though the BRAC office is open).  My hopes of buying a stove and a mattress are dashed yet again.  Luckily I found a large back of halloween-size chocolate candies in my suitcase (it was meant for others, but they will never know!) that's holding me over during this period of absence of kitchen functionality.  Seriously though, does ANYONE really like three musketeers?

The book is going in chunks to the printer; hopefully the whole thing will be there by Sunday.  In addition to hartals, we have to think about the binding process--if it rains (which is has been), it takes longer for everything to dry and set. Nonetheless, I'm optimistically forging ahead with the publicity campaign; if this can be moved based on sheer will and faith, I will make it happen.  Check out the launch announcement on the BRAC blog!

Finally, while waiting for my ride this morning, in my empty apartment where I now have a desk, but no chair (making it rather un-useful, actually kind of cruel), I pulled out the new music books that I brought back here with me, including the Harvard "folk song society" songbook and wandered around testing out the acoustics of my various rooms (they are good! No furniture to absorb sounds!).  Stumbled across a song I didn't remember with lyrics that resonated (in my head, not the rooms, since I couldn't sing them).  Wiki gives it a Hebrew origin:

All the world is a very narrow bridge, and the most important thing is not to fear at all.

Earlier this week, Sikkim was hit by a 6.8 earthquake.  We in Dhaka had a 3.0-ish earthquake that was about 2 minutes long.  I was up on the 20th floor of the BRAC building when it started, and spent a good deal of the two minutes running down the stairs, at times feeling like I was on a ship that was rocking in the waves.  Others in Dhaka didn't feel it.  A few buildings shifted slightly.  My punching bag set-up remains intact.  A reminder that there's a lot that happens that we don't anticipate, and we need to be prepared for the unexpected (including planning for rain in your calendar about publishing a book!).  Not that the developing world has a monopoly on tragedy--certainly Hurricane Irene and a former colleague's serious car accident demonstrated that--but here certainly the vulnerabiliy/fragility of human life is a bit more palpable every day.  So don't waste time eating gross candy (like three musketeers).