Walking around Dhaka as a foreigner, I am inevitably asked to pose for photos by Bangladeshis. It's a novel experience to receive the treatment of a minor celebrity simply on the basis of being caucasian, and it answers my youthful wonderings about what it would be like to be famous and ceaselessly hounded by fans (the answer: A hassle).
But I recognize that to many Bangladeshis I meet on the street I am one of very few westerners they are likely to meet, so I do my best to be cordial and accept my strange stardom (though it has occurred to me to wayleigh Bangladeshis on the highstreets of Britain and ask them to pose for photos, just to even the score).
I can only assume that these photos are some form of social media clout, because I have received many odd requests. To date, I have been asked to grab the top of a balding man's head, do a boxing style face-off with a grinning youth, and say a phrase in Bangla that I can only assume was some profane or political declaration at my own expense.
These interactions give me terrifying visions of achieving unsolicited internet virality and being unable to leave the house but for throngs of photo-seeking fans. Thankfully that's unlikely -- though I have had one experience with such a predicament.
While covering a recent demonstration I became ubiquitous to the protestors as the only foreigner present in the crowd, and so after they had finished chanting their cause and received the army’s empty reassurance that “everything will probably turn out fine”, a horde of them descended upon me for photos. Now, one grinning fool with frivolous demands, I can handle–converse with, even. But when surrounded on all sides by sweaty selfie requests and my own face peering back at me on what felt like a thousand phone screens, I began to understand why celebrities reflect on photo-seeking fans with the same sentiment most people reserve for their mother-in-law.
All I can say is I hope my appearances on Bangladeshi social media are making someone, somewhere, smile.
Louis Allport is an intern at Dhaka Tribune.
