Bangladesh: The barrels of Barishal

Since the Mughal era, Barishal has been the commercial gateway to the southwest delta. It’s been whimsically described as the “Venice of Bengal.” although if you’re just counting waterways, almost any large town in southwestern Bangladesh is a Venice. At its commercial dock, brightly colored barges were drawn up on the muddy, litter-strewn beach, with gangplanks connecting them to wooden jetties. The river port is second only to the capital Dhaka for the volume of passenger traffic. On the other side of the passenger ferry terminal is what I’ll call the shared taxi station. Here, flat-bottomed nouka, powered by outboard motors or poled by boatmen, provide short-haul service to villages. A nouka departs when it’s full, or when the boatman figures he has enough fares to make the trip worth making. No nouka advertises its destination. You just know that Faisal goes to one village, Mamun to another, and that Amit will make sure your children get to school on time.