Sublime Chaos

After thirty-six hours, three layovers and numerous appalling airplane meals I couldn’t bring myself to eat out of a mix of disgust and stomach-churning anticipation, I finally arrived.
Right away, instinctively, I knew: I was in for something major. Something far beyond what I’d previously anticipated.
Although I’d always felt like there was no real need for such a thing if you were the “real deal” – a seasoned traveler – boy was I glad to see my name written up on the sign being held by the surprisingly small, wide-eyed, grinning Bangladeshi man that was to drive me from the airport to my flat in the center of the capital. I’d never felt so out of place in my life: it was as though every single pair of eyes was on me. I couldn’t spot a single other foreigner and we were in an airport, of all places.
“This is what I came here for”, I thought, “This is the kind of experience I’ve always craved”.
Yet, as we made our way through the innards of one of the busiest, most chaotic places in the world, dread settled in. I was ashamed of myself: I’d always taken such pride in my capacity to adapt, to embrace even the most intense cultural shock with glee and childlike wonder. This time was different. This time, when the driver dropped me off at Hatirpool Bazaar, the street I was to call home for the next five months, I knew there had to be a mistake. I couldn’t possibly live here, in this part of town. What I came to realize very quickly is that, in Dhaka, there is no “good” or “bad” part of town: the city is in such a state of disarray that no matter where you go, you cannot escape the misery, the pollution, and the traffic. The first 48 hours – there is no other way to put it – I felt paralyzed. Soon enough, though, I learned to embrace the chaos, the sublime chaos that I came to understand is what best defines Dhaka.
Merriam Webster defines the word sublime as follows: "to elevate or exalt especially in dignity or honor; to render finer." Indeed, this is what I came to know about this city: despite all of its shortcomings, Dhaka manages to elevate itself in dignity and honor by the sheer force and resilience of its people in the face of the kind of adversity we westerners cannot even begin to fathom.
We are all united by a common range of human emotions. The rest is just a question of geography. And circumstance.