Crowded. Dusty. Packed.
People tend to use the same words over and over when talking about the city of Dhaka. And they’re not wrong. It is all those things. And distinctions like being the most polluted city don’t exactly make it seem like the most appealing destination.
But like most places, I refused to believe that was all there is to the city until I got there. And sure enough, I found a city at the heart of a country on the rise. One making unprecedented moves against poverty in such a short span of time. A place that holds the promise of opportunity, along with the pains of lost opportunity due to climate change.
It’s hard to do justice to the complicated capital that is Dhaka without simply going one story at a time. Talking to people. Learning how they got there. It’s what I do.