In a city where the classes force together. the bunk classes with their charitable, the intellectuals with intellectuals and so on, it has not been truly feasible to open all-embracing salons specified as tally existed in Paris or Leadership, the author bohemian of the occidental cities.But there is one Bangali organization – and it is accurate of Calcutta as overmuch as Dacca that has influenced the ongoing account and nowadays of the city. This is the ‘adda’. To the first Bengali the adda is more than meet a way of animation – it is an overwhelming road and an eventual direction.
The adda begins with ‘moa’ and tea on the chance of the tierce ‘Shudhi Samabesh of the extent of adda is as vast as Beauty Going the port of Dhaka and as least as the seats of crossroad with his parents neighbor the then Quaide-e cronies. In between the extremes of loitcring Azam College and now Shahid Suhrawardy College youngness in the Ramna Commons and the secluded domains -were the daily patrons of this restaurant.
One thing that has changed drastically about Bangla Bazaar over the years is the writer-publisher rendezvous at the Beauty Boarding. This old motel-cum-restaurant situated at the end of the Bangla Bazaar street, on the verge of Paridas road, once was the hub for creative and progressive tête-à-tête.
The sales person of Ahmad Publishing house who has been working in this area for a long time reported seeing even Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman coming to Beauty Boarding for its famous adda (chitchat). Currently the place is managed by Tarok Saha and Somor Saha, sons of Prohallad Saha who was killed in 1971 along with 17 other staff and boarders of the place.
They inform that before liberation, this place was frequented by creative people from various fields – writers, artists, film directors, politicians, singers and composers. Nowadays a group of writers arranges a get-together once a year in memory of that time. Mohammad Liakat Ullah, owner of Student Ways, established in 1951, cites the menacing traffic of Old Dhaka as the sole reason for loss of that culture of Bangla Bazaar that had developed centring Beauty Boarding.
“Poet Nazrul used to come to 14 Bangla Bazaar, then there was the office of Begum magazine and writer Nasir Ali used to sit at Nawroze,” he says, “as a result, this place had automatically become a hub for writers.” Munirul Haque of Ananya however, feels that there is no longer need for such a gathering, as writers do not need to come to the publishers for submitting their works or proof reading. With the advent of technology they can do those things from their home. Rather, he finds coming to Bangla Bazaar just for chitchat, a waste of time.
