Journey to Keshabpur

Last month I have been to Keshabpur for audit purpose. Keshabpur is an Upazila of Jessore District in the Division of Khulna, Bangladesh. Purpose of the visit was to audit a partner NGO of the client I have been auditing. Iftekher vai (my senior at AQC) and I were selected for the team. We were required to finish our assignment by 3 days.

Our journey started at early morning. I arrived at bus stand almost half an hour before the departure time. Ifti vai arrived shortly. Our bus started for the destination  at 9 am. Though it was not my first tour without my friends and family, I was excited. I was excited mostly because we didn’t know anyone where we were going. Also we had no idea how we will reach the client’s office and where we will stay. We were told to contact with the partner NGO when we reach Keshabpur.

Our Bus dropped us at Jessor. Till then journey was great. Nothing special to tell except for I slept almost whole time. Then we got into a local bus which will take us to Keshabpur directly. I don’t want to describe about the bus or its environment. But I must describe the view I enjoyed from traveling though it.

The  local bus was running through a narrow road. I was sitting just beside bus window. I was enjoying an awesome natural beauty. There were fields with different crops in both side of the road. Fields were  mostly paddy fields. However most of the fields were water-logged. It is one big problem in this area. But the view of green water logged fields were great. I could see many small hut in distance. This huts works as resting place for the farmers and provide shade when they have their lunch and shelter during rain.  It was raining just before i got down from the highway bus. The road and the surrounding was still wet.Rain drops washed away the dust and dirt of the leaves of the trees. Everything was looking green and fresh. I could resemble the view with the description of an ideal village I read in books and essays.

It was dawn when we reached Keshabpur. It took us 1 hour to reach from Jessor and 9 hours from dhaka. Ifti val called the contact person and ask for instruction about how to go to the office. We were instructed to take a man-pulled van. By the way, Rickshaw is not available in this region. Rather man-pulled van and shallow-machine van (also know as Nasimon or Karimon or Votvoti) are prevalent. we took a man-pulled van and reached the office in 10 minutes.

After the introduction with office personnel we were taken to our room. It was upstairs of the office. As we were tired of journey, we planed not to do anything. After refreshing ourselves and resting a while, we started our audit planning. We shared our audit planning with office personnel over dinner. For your information, most of the office personnel lives upstairs of the office. After dinner I called my home and let them know I arrived safely. Nothing much happened afterwards as we called it a day.

Next day was busy a day. But it started with an entertaining scene. A group of languor was roaming in the rooftop of the building next our office.I knew that Keshabpur is famous for Gray languors. I was hoping to see them but never thought to see them these closely. We spent few minutes watching them. Then we went for breakfast. Afterwards our work started and we worked till lunch. After lunch we took some rest and went out for field visit. We returned at dawn. As our time was limited and work load was huge, we decided to take all the documents to our room and work till late night. We indeed worked till late night. But could not finish our work. We finished our work next day before lunch. After lunch, we went to our room to take some rest and organize everything. We started to prepare for the exist meeting. However it took us till evening to organize to discussing points.

Before exist meeting we booked two seats for our journey to Dhaka. Though we were permitted to stay another night, we decided not to take that option. After the exist meeting, we went to our room and hurried to pack our bags. Our bus was scheduled to leave within couple of hours. After dinner ifti vai went to office manager and paid all our bills. Few minutes later we left the office for bus stand. Two officer accompanied us to the bus stand. Our bus came after 15 of the scheduled time. It was last bus to Dhaka from Keshabpur. We were tired and sleepy. I fell asleep right after I got in our bus. I don’t  remember anything what happened next except for Ifti vai telling highway police at midnight that these bags (pointing to our bags) belongs to two of us. We safely arrived at Dhaka next day. Our senior recommended us to take the day off and report to Client’s office next day. That was a great news for us because we had no energy or stamina left to attend the office.

The tour was great. I got the change to see and culture of Jessore region. Got familiar with food cooking and social behavior. I was planning to visit the place once again with my friends. But I didn’t know that I have to come to same region with in few days. But that’s another story.

Redwan

 

Vacation came!!

I have audited a client for last 3 months. It was far from my house. So I had to wake up and start early in the morning. And then fight to get in the bus. I had to be in client’s office by 9am. I had to follow this routing 6 days in a week. I was getting tired day by day. But I knew a week-long vacation is coming. So I kept my patience.

Finally long waited vacation came. Already two days of vacation have passed. I was so busy in enjoying the vacation that I forgot to write about it. The most awesome part of the vacation is I don’t have to wake up early in the morning. I cal sleep as long as I want. Last couple of days I wake up after 11 am. It is pretty late than my usual time.

Though vacation have started, I cannot enjoy it properly. My level 1 exam in ICMAB is knocking at the door. I couldn’t study for the exam earlier. So I’m focusing on last moment’s preparation. I had plan to attend all four exams of level 1. But due to lack of preparation, I am thinking of attending only two exams; Intermediate Financial Accounting and Information Technology.

Vacation will come to en end in just 5 days. So I will try my best to utilize the vacation by preparing for the exam and giving rest to myself. And after the exam, busy schedule will resume. 😦

Be Safe while on road

Eid-ul-Fitr is knocking at the door. People are getting busy with holiday shopping. Shopping malls are already prepared for holiday sales with their goods. Weekly holidays for shopping mall have gone. Now the shopping malls stay open from morning to late night. In order to finish the shopping, people are staying outside till late night. This is contributing greatly in traffic jam. How? Most of the shoppers brings their personal vehicles to the shopping mall. Most of the shopping mall in our country ha very limited parking place. Therefore, people who can’t avail the parking facility, they parks their vehicles  in the road side making the road narrow and even blocking the road. A large number of public transports like CNGs, cabs & rickshaws waits in front of shopping malls in order to get passengers. Also number of vehicles running in the streets have increased on this occasion. Result of these is sever traffic jam in the city. Now it takes almost three times more time to reach the destination. However, roads are empty in the early morning. It is the best time to travel long route.

As I wrote earlier section that streets are pretty busy during these days. People who walks in the road are busy too. Most people don’t use foot-over-bridges. People on the street suddenly starts running to cross the road. They are aware of how to cross roads but they don’t obey the rules. And as a result accidents occurs most often.Couple of days earlier,  I have seen a terrible accident.

I was walking on the footpath of airport road near Banani. I was stuck at traffic jam in front of Naval headquarter for a while. So I got down from bus and started walking. Few minutes later I was close to Banani circle. Footpaths were occupied by street hawkers. So I had to get down from footpath and walk on the side of road. Suddenly I noticed that there were lots of blood on the street. I was almost walking over the blood. So I stopped and carefully saw my surroundings. Then I saw a small crown just in front of me. I hurried to the crowed and found out that there were a police van and a police is asking a person some questions. I peeped through the van and saw a wrapped dead body lying inside the van. I asked the person standing right to me about what happened. He told me that a road accident took place. A person was trying to cross the road when a bus knocked him  down causing his death on the spot. I looked again to the place where accident took palace. I saw some small pieces of dead man’s body still lying on the road. I had some urgent matters to attend to and so I left the place. But for the rest of the day, I kept thinking about the accident.

I believe this kind of accidents could be minimized if people patiently waits for the signal or uses the foot-over-bridge. I request all of you to follow traffic rules while you drive and be careful when you walk on the road. And those who  are very busy with Eid shopping and passing most of their time in shopping mall, watch out for your wallets, bags and mobile phones. Crowd in the shopping mall is an ideal place for pick-pockets. Be alert when you shop and when you are on streets.

Good wishes for the upcoming holidays!!!

Acting on time!

When I was a child, I got a piece of advice along with lot of other advises. And that advice was to act on time. However I never gave importance to that advice. As a result I had to face difficulties lots of times.

I started my university life as a ‘go-with-the-flow’ type student. And because of that, my results wasn’t up to my expectations. However I didn’t act on time. Therefore I had to work hard at the end of university life to push my result higher. At that time I learned that it is better to act on time.

1 months after I got admitted in ICAMB, I saw that ICMAB invited application for exemption for the foundation level. I had all the requirements and so I decided to apply. However I didn’t act on time. I waited till the last week of submission date. So I had to face lots of difficulties. But some how I managed to apply by the last hour of the last day. This is not everything. I still can’t act on time. In few days I will apply for registration at ICAB (Institute of Chartered Accounts of Bangladesh). However I still didn’t get my provisional certificate at my hand. I had to wait more than 2 weeks before my transcript gets updates. Even after I found that my transcript is updated, I couldn’t apply for official copy of transcript  because I forgot to take the application with me. Though I hope I will get my certificate and transcript just few days earlier than the date I will need them.

It appears that I barely have  time to things but at the end I somehow manage to do everything. I don’t know why I still can’t take the lesson to act on time. I need to learn act on time as soon as possible. Or else I will always face the shortage of time and barely do what I need to do.

Bad day! good day!!

It was the first day of April. I got up early in the morning only to hear a bad news. To be exact, it was 5:20 in the morning. My father woke me up and told me that my aunt ( elder sister of my father) have passed away few hours earlier. Several hours earlier we were informed that her condition was not good she might not make it till midnight. I didn’t know what to say. So I remained quiet and prayed for her departed soul.

My father told me to prepare myself to leave for Chandpur to attend the burial. He also told me that we will be leaving in an hour. Although I was scheduled to leave for university an hours later, I had to make a change for this incident. I prepared myself in next 30 minutes. We were supposed to travel with my uncles who will also attend the burial. Later we decided to go by ourselves. Because of the that decision my mom wanted to go with us. We set out by 6:15am leaving my sister and young nieces alone at home.

By 10:30 am in the morning we reached to Chandpur and by 11am we reached to our destination. However my uncles didn’t reach till then. I entered inside the house and saw my my aunt for one last time. Later I came to know that her burial was scheduled right after the Zohor prayer and all the preparation is complete. I met with my uncle and said my condolences. I really felt sorry for his loss. But I was more sorry watching his condition. He was just like a broken man.

By 1 pm everyone was present including my uncles. Then we went to say Zohor prayer. After the prayer, everyone attended the “namaj-e-janaza” to pray for her soul. The we attended the burial and once again prayed for her.

When I was attending my aunt’s burial, I got a phone call from unknown number. However I didn’t pick it up. After the burial, I tried to call that number several time but the number was busy. After an hour later, that number called me again. This time picked it up and asked who was it. Person in the other side told me that he is a HR officer of a bank of which I attended a written test several months ago. The HR officer said that an interview had been scheduled for me in the next morning. He gave me the address of head office of the bank and told me to be there right at 11 am. I confirmed that I will be there.

I was little surprised for getting the call. I knew that I wasn’t selected for the position for which I appeared in the exam. They have recruited for the position 2 months earlier.

Later I visited our own house and stayed there for a while. I was little tired from this journey. So I tried to take a quick nap. I was almost asleep when I got another phone call. I picked it up only to know that I was asked to join in the Chartered Accountant Firm in the next morning. I was waiting for this call for 5/6 months. I became very excited. Problem was I was asked to join in at 9:30. I knew it would be hard for me to join at 9:30 in the next morning. So I told them that I will be there by 10 as I am not in the city.

In the evening we went to my grandpa’s (mother’s father) house. we stayed there till 9 pm. In the mean time I roam around my old town to see how it have changed while I was away. I was little but shocked when I found that I couldn’t recognize most to the roads and places. Well it has been 10 years since I left this town. I became nostalgic.

I started for Dhaka at 9 pm and safely reached home in the very early morning in the next day. And by 10 am I joined in the CA firm ignoring the offer for interview at the bank. And that’s another story.

I was wondering how was the first day of April. Day and the month started with a very bad news. On the other hand first day ended with two good news. I think it would be a bad day. Because I had to bid farewell to my aunt for the last time. I know I would get lots of calls later. Though it would take some time. But they will come many times as long as I am alive.