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A lot of people born and brought up in the Bangladesh city suburbs or erstwhile sub-divisional (now district) towns find their roots inextricably dug in there. They may have been facing a dearth of amenities normally found in the large cities since their childhood. Big-city manners, etiquettes and dialects are strange to the areas --- part-town and part-village. Except vast playgrounds, rivers or ponds, isolated forests and a few segments of pristine nature, they remain deprived of many recreational outlets. Large swathes of tranquil neighbourhoods, roads free of traffic gridlocks and noise still distinguish the suburbs or small towns. Nowadays, activists championing different humanitarian causes have started coming forward; so have the occasionally held human chains and sit-ins.
Back in the 1960s and the early 70s, remote sleepy towns in Bangladesh, too, were found rocked by turbulence and different types of political agitations. But those unstable times did not last longer in those places. It was because the mainstream activities of all sectors were always found concentrated in the capital. Moreover, the cities have huge meeting venues, stadiums hosting gala sport events like international or regional cricket or football matches, and, of course, theatres. The capital Dhaka is filled with myriad types of events that have great appeal to its residents. Thanks to the online networks, especially those found connected to the omnipresent smart phones, the small town inhabitants, however, do not find themselves alienated these days from the goings-on in Dhaka or Chattogram.
In spite of these instant communication links, unthinkable even 15-20 years ago, the small towns --- once known as 'mofussils', remain free of the impacts and fallout of many big-town happenings. Dhaka and the large cities go through the many after-effects of a critical event. One event triggers many others, and those at times lead to a complicated situation. The ripples of these developments normally do not directly reach the 'mofussil' towns. In the pre-independence days, for the people living in these places, a chief means of keeping informed about the happenings in the 'country' was the one-band transistor radio. It would be stringently controlled by the then central government. Few people could afford even a low-priced one-band transistor, let alone a 3-band radio. Well, people would tune in to 'Akashbani' transmitted from Kolkata. They were interested not much in its news broadcasts, except in 1971, as they were in its weekly plays and the programmes of popular songs. A handful of dailies used to come to the small towns in the evening. Due to the late arrival of the newspapers, the day and the date on the front page of newspapers meant for distant places outside Dhaka used to be different --- i.e. one day after the original dateline. However, with the launch of the high-speed inter-district and long-distance buses and those exclusively operated by a couple of dailies, newspapers began reaching the 'mofussil' towns by late noon. The dateline remains the same as in the main newspapers. Nowadays non-stop express trains take much of the load.
In spite of living in humble environs with virtually no glitz, the small-town people do enjoy their lives. With Dhaka becoming unliveable by the day thanks to the dozen types of pollution and the rising cost of living, majority of the people in small towns prefer these 'urban spots' amid vast rural expanses to the capital. To many, the very suggestion of living in Dhaka sounds like something dreadful. In 'mofussils' they are happy and enjoy a peaceful life. Yet there are also people, who become desperate to leave their archaic age-old abodes. They somehow reach Dhaka, despite being disillusioned later. This trend appears to be growing fast. And there are reasons, too. The factors that prompt a section of people to rush for Dhaka lurk in social realities. Foremost among them is grabbing the opportunity to ensure a better living, in terms of facilities and affluence.
The propensity is not limited to the comfort-seeking people only. Nowadays, upon being unable to endure the fast encroachment of big-city urban vices any more, the middle-class people in general are mulling the option to leave their ancestral towns for good. What once were viewed as isolated urban influences on the 'mofussil' people, especially the youths, were later found emerging as debilitating impacts on all age-groups of the younger generations. Teenagers have comprised a great segment of them. The vices they engage in range from addiction to drugs, involvement in sexual crimes, turf wars to working as hired thugs of local syndicates. A large percentage of small-town youths are nowadays dubbed hardened criminals in the making. All this prompts the parents with a sense of responsibility towards their offspring to become proactive to save them from the clutches of a demonic force centred in the underworlds of small cities. They leave the 'mofussils' for Dhaka and other cities. To their dismay, they watch their decision get ruined in disasters. The youths become more defiant and ruthless. Moreover, the livelihood outlets prove too scarce. Besides, the long struggle to find a footing in a vast metropolis fills the new-comer youths with dread. Both the parents and their young male children eventually find their fate sealed. Unable to shift to the expected spheres of activities, they virtually rot away on social peripheries of the big cities.
Outwardly, many district and upazila (sub-district) towns can boast of the big-city shines and glamour. Many of them have wide roads with arrays of shops lining them. The intersections of roads have eye-catching Liberation War or other sculptures, with night-time dazzling shopping centres drawing eager shoppers throughout the week. Some of these towns take pride in their century-old railway stations or river ports. But what they lack are quality educational institutions. Some of them can showcase their British colonial-era schools and colleges. The harsh truth is, following years of neglect by the authorities concerned they have turned into obscure education centres. Results of their public examinations continue to deteriorate, making the parents fully disillusioned. Only a handful of college students passing out from these institutions can muster the educational capabilities to get enrolled in the higher education centres in the capital. According to studies carried out by education experts, academic activities in the districts and other small towns have long been taking leave of these places.
The scenarios in the capital Dhaka or the port city of Chattogram are not much upbeat. But the colleges and universities in these cities can at least boast of their infrastructural strength. The teaching staffs are also better qualified and serious than those found outside the big cities. Ironically, a lot of the district-level colleges in the distant past also could boast of their teachers. Some of them were able to reach legendary statuses.
Like the academic sector, the small towns' other areas are also fast being spoiled by big-city ills. Slums, garbage piles, water logging etc are nowadays common spectacles. Elderly people often reminisce about the calm evenings in the 'mofussil' neighbourhoods. A common sound that would fill the air was that of modulation of singing voices to the accompaniment of harmoniums. Evenings were the ideal time for young women and teenagers for taking music lessons from their teachers. These sounds have long been consigned to the past. The deafening sounds of traffic movement, the vehicles' horns, loudspeakers of mobile vendors etc have devoured the sing-song voices at the sessions of music lessons.
An ugly reality that has distinguished the small-town life is an eerie feeling of insecurity. The peaceful segments of people always feel threatened with one or another dreadful hazard. Situations like this drive people to make attempts to try their luck in the big cities. Most of them fail. Dropping the idea of settling down in big metropolises, they finally remain stuck to their traditional abodes with faint urban beats. It's because, the small towns are yet to be overpowered by the modern scourge of urban alienation. The pro-city people's prediction of a sweeping spread of urban features in Bangladesh may not materialise anytime soon. A bitter reality, however, is still there. The cities keep devouring small towns insidiously. Ironically, many industrialised cities nurture townships filled with ranches and orchards with great fondness.