I don't mean this to be derogative in any way, but, "mudluscious" is the word that comes to my mind when I think of Bangladesh. The word triggers recollection of memories of my times spent during vacations to Bangladesh, especially when I was still a child. During visits to rural areas, I would run through rice paddies and play on the bank of muddy creeks along with my cousins, with utter disregard for cleanliness or what my mother had to say. My mother's complaints were simply not in my mind when I had too much fun feeling the cool mud in the hot afternoons.

Unfortunately, those days were not long. I had to return to reality in Saudi Arabia soon after. In my successive visits, I was truly disappointed to find out all my cousins have outgrown the need to play in the mud, while I still wanted to. To them, they have stopped appreciating what they have had plenty of.

Mud is also something that I have to deal with if I ever visit Bangladesh during the rainy season. Walking through mud becomes absolutely necessary in my maternal grandfather's village. Just to get there, I need to take a small riverboat called "launch".

A small riverboat. Like the one I had to take.

When we arrive near his village, we have to get off the boat and actually walk through mud before we make it to dry land (also dependent on the tide at the time). But, just getting to the actual village requires trekking in unpaved roads that are extremely muddy after rainfall.

Now I miss that mud. The only thing that   reminds me of that mud is the slush I have to walk through sometimes here in Montreal during the winter months.

The word "mudluscious" itself is not my invention. I read a poem by a famous American poet who uses this word to show a child's perspective. I adopted this word as part of my vocabulary as soon I heard it. It was the best word I could find to describe my nostalgic feelings for my childhood memories of Bangladesh. Unfortunately I forgot the poets name or the name of the poem.

return to top