A Storehouse of Spirit!
I bet anyone would be dazzled hearing her pure Bangla utterances. We often mix up Bangla with smatter of other languages, some common English words have become unavoidable while speaking. But she does not even insert a single English word while speaking the mother tongue. Anima bhabi finds it so blissful to engage in our language and culture. According to her, she finds our language ‘simple but the most gorgeous in its phonetic flow.’
If you are offered a luxurious life with a handsome salary, de luxe living and so on, would you ever reject? Additionally, being a Bangladeshi, how much hopeful are you regarding our country? You obviously would glimpse on load shedding, traffic jam, adulteration, air pollution and finally deduce — oh! there is no future in our country!
Surprisingly, and very unexpectedly indeed, there is someone who is not a Bangladeshi by born but by heart, who has shown the purest form of patriotism for our own country, for our language. She has left her luxurious life behind and came to Bangladesh with a view to changing herself as well as her surroundings. When she wanted to came to Bangladesh, one of her colleagues addressed this country as a ‘horrible’ one and suggested not to dare to come here. However, she felt an attraction for Bnagladesh and started her journey to experience something new and interesting.
Why Bangladesh? She has a ready reply: There is no other city as magical as Dhaka. She feels that she
has visited more than fifty countries but could not find another country like Bangladesh.
This super woman is Debra Efroymson, born in the USA, who completed her M.A. from Harvard School of Public Health in Science and Population. She had had her B.A. in English, American literature and language from Harvard College. She has been working with several developmental organizations since 1995. Debra is involved in qualitative research, writing, public speaking, advocacy and so on.
When she began to learn Bangla, Debra, aka Anima bhabi, was reading a novel and spotted a protagonist named Anima in it. From then she named herself Anima which means spirit. Interestingly, after coming to Bangladesh, people started to call her bhabi, or sister-in-law in translation. So she organically became the ‘Anima bhabi’ of everyone. That is her story of naturalization.
I bet anyone would be amazed by how she now embraces Bangla and Bengali culture.
Not only that, Anima loves the hospitality of our people, especially of the rural people while on a visit to the villages. She says that they become so happy seeing guests who arrive uninvited and they go like, “What do you want to eat?” “What is your favorite dish?” “Please stay one more day.” When time comes to say goodbye the entreatment “visit whenever you want” stays with her. She loves this plainness of the village people who are never hesitant to draw others closer to their families.
When she was asked about her favorite food, our bhabi was so excited she replied: ‘Tetuldiye begun bhorta’ (mashed egg-plant with tamarind). She loves to have traditional Bengali foods like — rice, curries, spinach, shutki (dried fish), bhorta (mashes) and so on. Her persona too has gone through a transformation. Her favorite dress is saree. She says whenever she wears it she finds herself to be more beautiful and fulfilling in her look.
She never dreams of a better place than Bangladesh. When she goes out for a walk in the morning, from rickshaw puller to vegetable seller as well as school going girls ask her, ‘how are you, bhabi?’ This pleases her the most. After coming to Bangladesh, she started to know how to mingle with people with spontaneity.
This phenomenal woman loves to read and memorize Shakespeare. She thinks reading literature has widened her mind a lot. During the interview she recites from Shakespeare:
“Love like a shadow flies when substance love pursues
Pursuing that that flies, and flying what pursues.”
Anima homes in on some of the problems of our country. She thinks that we belittle ourselves by thinking that we are unable to do things the way other can. Her optimism is infectious: “Bangladeshi people have a lot of strength to develop themselves. Traffic jam, excessive air and sound pollution are some of the enduring problems in need of attention.” She also thinks that young people can contribute a lot to ensure a flourishing, thriving society. She also reiterated the need for bringing into alignment public and private efforts.
In an age when tongues of our youngsters are heavy on foreign words, and the thought patters are easily diluted by what they pick up while facebooking, or playing video games or even surfing through the net, there are a few like Debra Efroymson who express heart-felt love for our country. This only proves that one does not need to be born in a country to develop patriotism. The world is one small place where we are resident for long haul — it is through bonds that transcend borders and the particularities of race that can contribute to the emergence of a new world order where fraternity is the main currency.
By Noor-e Zannat Nusha
