So there I was in the office, which is based in Nilkhet, yesterday, trying to grasp all the nettles of the operation and despite moving forward a bit recently, not sure when we will really get up and running. I was thinking of all the logistics, I was feeling frustrated that things take so long to happen, to move.
Then there was a knock on the door and in walks one of the junior GoB officers. Big beaming smile, he proceeded to surprise me by saying,
"Ministry of Land (MoL) wants to install an attached bathroom for you. Where shall we put it? In this corner?"
Realizing quickly that it was not some sort of joke, I questioned where a private loo should be on the list of priorities of the project. I also wondered who was paying.
"Money is no object, not coming from European Commission project funds," I was told, and that a decision was needed at once!
Wow! What excitement!
A personal contemplation chamber, my own thunderbox. I recalled one of my old agricultural sayings when trying to get people to get on with things without delay, I would shout, "For goodness sake, either finishg or get off the pot!"
The MoL building in which we occupy floors three to five has just been repainted outside, a good omen for the future. Even our road has been resurfaced in recent weeks. The signboards are going to be freshened up and now new loos:"You see all joint secretaries must have their own toilet," I was told, and that as the Bangladeshi National Project Director has been promoted, my status has also been enhanced.
I said that if MoL are paying and thinking of knocking down walls etc, let's look at what else we need, like a much better reception area, a lock-up cell for the Bhola muscle-men, and so on. I also pointed out again that if we are to have our full complement of staff, we just do not have enough space.
"No problem, Mr Julian, we are to be making a new 12-storey building at the back. "It will be the hostel for the Land Administration Training Centre (which occupied floors one and two in our current building), and you will have an office on the 10th floor where there will not be so many mosquitoes. Fully air-conditioned, lift, generator, canteen. I know that you like shingaras so much, you can have homemade ones, and if you have any problem -- any problem -- you will have your own toilet, either here or in the new building."
I asked when my new penthouse might be ready and was told ideally by the end of this government's tenure (2006), but latest by 2007.
"But that's when the project ends," I retorted. "Yes Sir," my guide told me. "But just think what an asset AG-II will be handing on to AG-III!"
I am often asked what keeps me going working in a country where many difficulties stare you in the face, but an experience of a snapshot such as this makes me chuckle and I feel a smile stays on my face and spreads all over me. This keeps me going.
Postscript
The European co-director’s “throne room” was duly completed, and I was able to contemplate life and pending decisions while looking at cool scenes of Swiss Alp photos which were covering all three walls of the toilet.
As soon as the Swiss Alpine retreat had finished, a number of staff wanted to fix times to meet me and after discussing an irrelevant topic, would leave while saying, “Sir, would you mind if …”
And so, many happily “relieved” members of staff bade me farewell at the time of my departure in 2006.
The junior engineer who had been on deputation from the MoL was, at that time, the only member of staff who was computer literate and he was very good at producing very genuine-looking but false bills and invoices, especially for overseas “so-called” study tours.
During the caretaker government, it was found that he had falsified many land documents and by that time he was an “owner” of millions of taka worth of property. He was arrested for fraud and died soon after when he was out on bail. A member of the administrative staff at Adarsha Gram phoned me with the news of the death and said, “Sir, Allah has had the final word.”
Oh, and the amazing sounding penthouse never managed to get beyond the drawing board.
Julian Francis has been associated with relief and development activities of Bangladesh since the War of Liberation. In 2012, the Government of Bangladesh awarded him the ‘Friends of Liberation War Honour’ in recognition of his work among the refugees in India in 1971 and in 2018 honoured him with full Bangladesh citizenship.
