Savar

I have visited the Martyr’s Monument in Savar, Bagladesh, twice – in 1996 and 1998. After having enjoyed the peacefulness of the place on my first visit, I felt compelled to return.

On both visits, I made the journey to Savar by auto rickshaw with a couple of local acquaintances. The trips were rather long – about an hour to and from Savar from the capital city of Dhaka. My most acute memory of those trips involved the olfactory assault of dust and human toil, mingled with inescapable vehicle exhaust fumes; those combined to produce dizzying effects.

However, upon entering the park and gardens surrounding the Martyr’s Monument, the typical hustle and bustle of the Bangladeshi roadside abruptly ceased. Paths lined with flowering shrubs, low bridges over a small stream, and reflective ponds seemed to embrace the park’s dominant feature – a towering seven-pronged stone monument to those that died in the war of 1971, fighting for Bangladeshi independence against West Pakistan (Bangaldesh was known as East Pakistan before gaining independence).

I found a certain sense of solemnity in the park when I went – a certain meditative energy. Perhaps the degree of peacefulness that I found at the Martyr’s Monument was a perfect foil to the atrocities committed in that short, but brutal, 1971 war. I hope that this park will remain such a tranquil place, and that those who visit will remember its meaning.