An escape from the city in summer

As we arrived at Utsab resort in Monipur at a hot and humid midday on May 16th, rain congealed out of the skies like grease. It rained not water but heat, in dirty, slippery waves, like someone's sweat. The air hangs so heavy that it forms a shroud, a suffocating cocoon all around. Breathing the air is like drowning. We felt the humidity may have reached its saturation point.
Trees that stretch the beautiful setting of the resort with their flowers and fruits stand like statues with a soothing breeze bringing them to life.
Our team members felt little dizzy and could hardly stand in the open. We barely mumbled 'hello' to the caretaker of the resort Mr Qadir while coming out of the microbus that had given us the taste of hell during our 50-kilometre trip from Dhaka.
We hurriedly took shelter in the single-storey resort and put on AC. We gathered in one of the double-bed rooms, a bit damp by prolonged humid condition, but cozy enough to accommodate us. A good amount of water intake and artificial cooling helped us float our consciousness to anticipate our outing.
But luck was not with us.
We hardly passed twenty minutes or so amid the artificial atmosphere and were planning for the next step, but suddenly electricity went off, leaving us in the reality again. As the mercury was rising high, I felt as if we were in a space capsule, enveloped in the heat caught between enchantment and illness.
Nevertheless, load-shedding could not damage the spirit of our team. We came out of the room to explore the big resort compound. Along with its Sal forest, this area is also famous as potential fruit producing zone. In every homestead, one can found plantation of pineapple, jackfruit, lemon and guava.
The owner of the resort must be a fruit-loving person, as we discovered along with common fruits some rare species of hog-plum, star-apple, pomelo planted on the compound.
But in this humid atmosphere, which appealed most were the rocking cradles and every member of the team was seen eager to mount on them.
We had simple but delicious lunch amid profuse sweating in the dinning room. After lunch no one dare to enter the rooms, which turned into boiler, and came out in the open again. This time we lay down on the concrete basements beneath big trees. All of a sudden a cool breeze from heaven started to blow and we embraced it by stimulating all our sensory organs.
Fruit bearing trees always have something to offer for the birds. Now, in the cooler atmosphere and fading light, they started to come out of their hides. Other than common birds, we found interesting species like iora, parakeet and orange-headed thrush, busy in raring their nestlings and juveniles.
Just behind the kitchen, a big cage was placed to keep poultry for the guests to consume. The cage was empty and its door open. Towfiq noticed first an adventurous common myna in the cage. To our amazement, with the guile of a lizard, Inam in a hurried run closed the door of the cage and encaged the poor myna. Surprise and horror gripped the bird, which started flying at every direction to get free.
But fortune was with the bird. In a desperate attempt the myna landed on the floor where it found an opening, and did not miss the chance to use the escape route.
We applauded the great escape of the bird anticipating its born free stature.

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Story: Khasru Chowdhury
Photo: Khasru Chowdhury & Mustafiz Mamun




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