Published Date

27

April 2010
Tuesday

HTM Students' Dhaka City Tour

HTM Students' Dhaka City Tour

HTM Students' Dhaka City Tour

They planned and prepared for the promised city tour and painstakingly wrote the commentaries on all seven famous attractions of Dhaka for 4 weeks, and finally they, the students have made it a great success making it to the streets of Dhaka delivering their speeches in front of the real attractions
and mock-up tourists - the rest of the class, and of course the curious crowds. Students also commented on the passing attractions from the bus. 

At 9:30am on the still-not-hot Friday morning when we reached our first destination, Jatyo Sangsat Bhaban, there were no crowds to flare the students' embarrassment so the delivery of the first speech was quick and smooth. Next destination was Shat Masjid in Muhammadpur, where packed in a narrow lane the mock-up tour guides and tourists had to ignore the curious looks of struggling to pass passers-by. The access path is not very welcoming there but it is worth it considering it is one of the oldest heritage buildings of Dhaka. Part of the same complex is an unknown mausoleum not far away built by the same Shaista Khan who built Shat Masjid
in the 16th c. 
 
Three other religious sites were included in our tour to showcase the diversity of our capital, those being Dhakeshwari temple, Armenian Church and Tara Masjid. We spent some time learning and observing some of the rituals performed by worshippers in Dhakeshwari temple, and listened to the students' presentations about the temple too. Not far from it was our next destination Lalbagh Kella. After the speeches were delivered, questions answered and group pictures taken, we walked down to Royal for the Old Dhaka food experience.

From the Lalbagh area our bus took us to the Armanitola where Armenian Church and Tara Masjid are located. Armenian Church is not an acting church and only holds services once a year for the Armenian expatriates visiting Bangladesh from abroad. A caretaker nevertheless showed us around the courtyard which contains around 150 graves. The heat and after-lunch tardiness affected the students' attention but the commentaries were still delivered very well and some energy was still left for Ahsan Manzil as our last object. There we finally made our conclusions for the day, dreamed about the glorious past and the clean waters of Buriganga.

This tour was a tremendous lesson and experience in tour-guiding techniques for the students and we sincerely thank our beloved university for the logistic support.