BANG-BANG! ladesh

One day we decided to go and watch metal casting. And after researching the area a few other things got added to the list, so the furthest point this time was Shailan Mosque and this time google maps was about right, but again we had to leave at 6 am.

Thanks to wikipedia we learned about the mosque and it was our first destination

The person who is looking after this mosque offered us some mangos right off the tree!

We walked around the mosque a bit and found the local gym (nobody was working out though)

Our next stop — Dhamrai Roth, a hindu wooden kind of  temple that gets moved around the town once a year

While waiting for the metal casting we were walking around the city visiting various temples (majority of the population in this particular area are hindu). We randomly found a very nice man who was looking after one of the temples and showed us the others in the neighbourhood. In one of those temples the reaction to me saying that I am Russian was “Russia is good, Russia is India’s friend”

The metal casting happened right in front of the Roth. The family that runs this workshop has been doing it for over 500 years. The technique is called “lost wax” and the idea is that at first a wax figure is made, then it is covered with a few layers of clay and afterwards is being put in the something like an over when wax runs away and the metal is poured in the forms instead. The process of metal casting is the most interesting one and it was very very hot and very very dangerous. The metal looks beautiful though — acid orange and green.

These were the pieces that have been sitting there for a whle already waiting for us

But this is not over — because it comes out with many defects, a lot of work is needed to fix it and make it perfect. At that moment they have been working on a big statue for one of the temples (the base was casted), and the head was getting last touches. In italic because it takes months to make it look shiny.

There is a shop by this workshop and once can see some examples of their work

The statue like the one above takes about 3-4 months.

And a must-have picture with the family that runs this workshop

They have a very nice house

The next stop — Natinal Memorial. I mentioned the war of 1971 many times already. Here it is like the 2nd World War in Europe, but for one country. It took them 16 years though to build this place, it looks a lot like many other concrete memorials I have seen in my life, but one should never tell this to the locals, for them it is the best memorial ever. Because the locals like to pose (A LOT), we decided to blend in (but we definitely suck)

Speaking of posing — many people pose with the bushes. I showed some examples before, but it is super funny — even when there is a monument, a Bush is thing to take a picture with. So we have been working hard on blending in even more

And in the end — a selfie with Mr. Bush!