Kring, You will be rememberd

by Md Nazmul Hasan Shajib (Bangladesh)

A leap into the unknown Bangladesh

October 8, Wednesday, after a sleepless night I got down in the Sylhet railway platform and directly went to the fast-food shop. I didn’t have food for last 12 -13 hours. There ordered a Hotdog and a Hot Coffee. Few minutes later, I started to look for rickshaw. Didn’t find any instead found a local vehicle named ‘CNG’. It took me to the Tamabil border to cross the country and to go to India for the first time. It's been 2 minutes and I'm sitting quietly with my passport at the Tamabil border. Whole police stations seemed sleepy as the previous day was Puja holiday. Nothing but just some tap tap sounds from the keyboard. The silence broke when the police wanted some bucks to permit me to cross the Bangladeshi border. -Why? I've paid all the required fees already. - Please co-operate and give some money to drink something I was not shocked at all. Because this is where I live. Rather I had gathered courage on my mind and refused the police to bribe him. He didn’t argue as he was looking tired. Then, within a few seconds, I had reached Dawki. Indian Border. Within 5 minutes, they put a 'Arrival' seal on my passport and let me enter their country. This is where my journey began. So, I put my passport on the bag and started walking towards the Dawki market. From there, I will go to 'Shillong'. It’s already 12 pm and I couldn’t manage a taxi to go to Shilong. While my stomach was crying for food I met a boy named ‘Kring’ who luckily was a taxi driver. But the problem is he doesn’t know either Bangla or Hindi. But he knew a little bit of English. Which he said in Hindi ‘Thora Thora’ (a little). I took his service though the price was high. He was young like me and he can drive. No more qualifications were needed. He worked the whole day as my tour guide and took me to the amazing places near Dawki district. Then we started our journey towards Shilong. It’s almost noon. Roads were dangerous and an enormous amount of fog made our journey horror. And the final nail in the coffin was we both didn’t have any warm clothes. Kring offered me a cigarette and told me, smoke it will help you to warm your body. I am not a chain smoker but at that time the cigarette tasted like a divine good. I requested him to play a song. And suddenly Poets of the Fall started singing, 'And we keep driving into the night. It's a late goodbye, such a late goodbye ... ' Somehow we reached Shilong around 7 pm. There, I paid his bill and started to look for hotels. Here starts the second horror of my journey. As it was the Holiday season in India, there was no room available in the hotels. After some desperate attempts, I came back where Kring dropped me and ordered some ‘PaniPuri’ (Indian Snacks). There I saw Kring looking for a passenger on his way back to Dawki. -Hey, you didn’t leave? -No, I look for passenger -And I look for rooms. Ha Ha -Oh, you don’t find room yet? - I wouldn’t be here with my luggage if I could manage one? - Don’t worry come with me. I know people here. Twenty minutes later, we were standing on the fourth floor of a hotel called 'Meghalaya Inn'. When I checked here they said no room available but now the manager agreed to give me a room. He took us in the room and said, - Fan Nehi hain (No Fan Available) - I am freezing. I don’t need a fan, I need a blanket. - O Milega (it is available) I took the room and started to unpack my things. After changing I came back to the hotel lobby and asked for kring. The manager didn’t see him. I went to the shop under the hotel in case he went there for a cigarette. He wasn’t there. I went to that PaniPuri shop he wasn't there too. I couldn’t thank him once for everything he did in an anonymous place