~story and photos by Mikey Leung~

Barry Ison likes to get things done.

“So what?” you might say. But Ison’s choice of where to get things done might strike you as confusing, perhaps even crazy. The notion of creating new hospitality businesses in Bangladesh, one of the world’s least-travelled, disaster-prone countries might elicit such a response. But Ison, a self-proclaimed optimist, believes that Bangladesh’s redeeming qualities make it just the right place to operate.

“What I’m doing is not totally unique,” he says. “There are many Bangladeshis and expatriates who have given years of their lives in an effort to try and change things. My motivation is probably similar to theirs: somebody has to do something to help.”

Help Bangladesh. It is a notion that for the last 30 years has defined the country’s world image as a broken country. Beset with floods, cyclones, poverty and corruption, it has now become the country with the most number of non-government organisations in the world, with some estimating that over 20,000 such groups now work to better the lives of the poor. But Ison is critical of these organisations, saying that they haven’t always achieved the results they set out to accomplish.

“I’m an optimist,” he says. “To me Bangladesh presents a lot of positives, positive potentials. It has had a very unfortunate period of bad leadership and bad role models, bad developments where a lot of money has been thrown at problems without a lot of thought, and with the seeming feelings that money will solve the problems.”

Despite these problems, Ison has stuck to his guns. In opening Ideas Manzil, he is attempting to revive traditions that today have been discarded in favour of modern development. His guesthouse is Bangladesh’s first ‘heritage’ property, a place where Bangladesh culture is celebrated in the form of intricate handicrafts, personal hospitality and old world comfort.

“When we look at the products I’ve been trying to revive, they have been a revival of old skills and previous traditions,” says Ison. “Same thing goes for a lot of the other leather products, wooden products. What we’re trying to do through Ideas Manzil is step back and look at what the country was like several years ago, or even a previous era.”

A tour of his guesthouse does indeed give guests a taste of that old world Bangladeshi charm. Ideas Manzil is located in a quiet neighbourhood of Gulshan, the main area that houses all of Dhaka’s foreign missions and international NGO offices. Ison has refitted an old house of the neighbourhood with four guest rooms, rooftop restaurant, handicrafts boutique and quiet courtyards (hopefully it will be even more quiet when nearby construction is finished).

Each of the four guestrooms (except one) has a sitting room decorated with rare antiques such as ancient terracottas and silverware, while each bedroom features an antique wardrobe and king-size four-poster bed. Modern bathrooms complement the design, while Mughal-style doors and carvings decorate the entire property. In short, the Manzil (Abaric term for ‘house’) feels like a kind of living museum, a place where guests can experience a taste of the way that Bengal’s Mughal lords used to live.

Heritage properties like Ison’s are now common in India, where old buildings are frequently restored and often converted to guesthouses in an effort to both preserve cultural heritage and create successful tourism businesses. In Bangladesh, Ison’s property is one of the first to restore and celebrate this form of hospitality in a way that is uniquely ‘Bangladeshi.’ He believes that if this business is successful, the potential of its impact will be realised when others steal—that’s right, steal—his idea.

“Bangladeshis do like to copy,” says Ison. “If I set up a ‘heritage’ establishment that reflects the traditions and culture and nature of what I feel is the true Bangladesh, then perhaps other people will copy me. And I can have an impact on a relatively large number of people.”

Perhaps Ison is on to something, as it would be good if others also stole some of his behind-the-scenes practices, as his notion of helping Bangladesh goes beyond preserving its culture in his guesthouse. He is also making a very conscious decision about who to hire for work at Ideas Manzil.

“What I’m trying to do is give training to people from lower income levels, people who come from the village, who have perhaps grade five to grade eight education,” he says.
“I give them in house training, I take them travelling around the region and show them what food and hospitality is like in those parts. With this cumulative experience, we work together try to create food, service, menus and tables that reflects the tremendous hospitality that has been the tradition of Bangladesh for a long, long time.”

On those fronts, Ison is doing a decent job at Ideas Manzil. It’s very friendly, prompt and unobtrusive at the same time. Unlike many other guesthouses, where service staff often barge into unlocked rooms without even knocking first, Ison’s staff are polite, helpful and seem empowered to think and act on their own.

The food and hospitality scores well too. Ison’s particular focus is on freshly prepared food, and to that end orders need to be placed in advanced or you can trust in the fixed menu that offered by staff. His restaurant serves home-style versions of Indian, Thai and Bangladeshi cuisine. They are home-style in the sense they aren’t totally authentic versions of the above cuisines, but they certainly are tasty and most importantly, fresh. Ison is also teaching his staff to prepare western deserts, which is a real treat and somewhat hard to find in Bangladesh.

And finally, one last question that had to be asked: What does Ison truly think about the tourism potential of Bangladesh?

“So many countries you go to you to, you live in environments that have been totally artificially reproduced,” he says. “In Bangladesh what you see is what you get. It is totally authentic. You want poverty? It’s here. You want beauty? It’s here. I have never seen so many greens in my life as in Bangladesh. You want warmth and hospitality and friendship? It is here.”

“Bangladesh has done something for them, in terms of their experiences, particularly in terms of relating to people, Bangladeshi or expatriate from different parts of the world. You can do so many things here that are unique and new, which in other countries have already been done. That kind of challenge is attractive to people who like to get things done.”

~story by Mikey Leung~

Originally aired at Asia Calling on 11 Oct 2008.

This week, Hindu people across South Asia celebrated Durga Puja, the biggest celebration of their cultural heritage.

Michael Leung covers this debate from Dhaka.

“I’m just standing inside a tented area of Shakhari Bazaar, There is a holy man making prayers from an ancient text in front of a Durga Idol. There are dozen of sweets boxes, fruits and flowers scattered around. This is a sacred time for the people here.”

Hindu artisans, musicians, and craftsmen have lived for generations in this Bazaar. Some of the houses are more than 300 years old. Their way of life, like their houses, has barely changed for centuries. Local Architect Taimur Islam says because of this the area must be preserved.

“Shakhari Bazaar is the oldest living neighborhood in Dhaka. We are celebrating Dhaka’s 400th anniversary this year. This is the anniversary of Dhaka’s founding as the eastern capital of the Mughal Empire.”

Islam is campaigning to have the buildings declared a heritage site. But he faces an uphill battle. Dozens of people shuffle inside one of these old houses. It’s a plastered brick building, three stories high.

With European-style columns, the building shows the influence of Bangladesh’s colonial past. Today, the people are admiring a colorful statue of the goddess Durga statue built for the holiday in the courtyard of Bishwajit Bhulu’s home.

His house is believed to be 80 years old, although there are some that are almost 300 years old on this street. While a group conservationists and architects like Islam would like to see them preserved, Bhulu has other ideas for his property.

“I want to redevelop my house and make a better place to live. The people of Shakhari Bazaar already live in difficult, crowded conditions. If my house is declared a heritage site, I will not agree. I think it is illegal for them to tell the owners of the houses what to do.”

As the owner of the property, Bhulu wants to make more money redeveloping it. He says he could build shops and facilities improving the community, instead of being stuck with what he calls an old crumbling house.

“It’s my house and my source of income. If you can provide me compensation then you can call it heritage. Why do you call it heritage? Otherwise I cannot provide for myself and my family. If it is declared then I deserve benefits.”

The debate over Bangladesh’s heritage buildings isn’t limited to just Shakhari Bazaar. Many of its old temples, Hindu or Muslim, are being left to decay around the country. In Bangladesh, there simply aren’t enough resources to provide for the people whose jobs it is to take care of the temples.

Bina Rai is one such temple caretaker. She lives in a dark, cramped space behind another Hindu temple of the city with her daughter.

“I’m facing many difficulties here. My living quarters aren’t even decent enough. The roof leaks when it rains and I have no running water or electricity.”

While the debate rages on in the media and amongst the people of Shakhari Bazaar, buildings are still coming down. Just a few weeks ago, the Hindu Jagannath Temple was torn down.

“I’m just standing at a construction site. Around me there are dozens of workers putting up corrugated tin and stacks of bricks from a formerly old building in this area of Shakhari Bazaar. There’s no trace of history here anymore and on each side I’m surrounded by new apartment buildings.”

Islam says that without government or private money, preservation work can’t proceed.

“How much money are we talking to do a restoration? For the courtyard we are probably looking at something like 5,000 dollars, but if we tried to do the whole building, it would be 20,000 to 25,000 dollars.”

25 thousand US dollars just to fix up one building. Multiply that by the approximately 90 buildings in Shakhari Bazaar and that’s well over 2 million dollars. For a country for whom the majority live on less than two US Dollars per day, that’s a tall order.

Just on the edge of the old city lies the Dhaka City Corporation building.

From Sirjaul Islam’s 11th floor office, there is a commanding view over the old city. He’s the city’s Chief Town Planner. He says a committee is now deciding the fate of Dhaka’s heritage buildings, including the crumbling buildings inside Shakhari Bazaar.

“Because once we have declared it is heritage, nobody can demolish these buildings and after our proposal, the committee will be deciding whether to preserve or retrofit the buildings. Maybe the government or some organization will finance it. But yet not decided.”

Without heritage funding, conservation efforts cannot proceed and inevitably, Shakhari Bazaar’s modernization will continue unabated.