I often love to walk through the narrow and crowded lanes of Old Dhaka which is also known as Puran Dhaka. This helps me perform mental exercise as I can have a greater view of history and background of our vibrant part of the city. Besides, it also helps me lose some calories as I walk a lot. The names of streets and neighbourhoods themselves reflect a diverse history of the city. Simpson Road, Johnson Road, Buckland Bandh are, for example, relics of the colonial era, while Armanitola is a reminder of the Armenian community that once settled in Dhaka.
The old buildings with diverse architectural designs or the local people speaking delightfully local dialect, known as Dhakaiya, reflect the centuries of migrations and settlements that have shaped our historic city. Today I am going to talk about an ‘Old is Gold’ type place named Beauty Boarding whose history carries loads of stories.
You can’t travel time physically but any interesting history that contains beautiful stories and also that can make you travel mentally. A few days back I time-travelled. Yes, the history of Beauty Boarding allowed me to envisage its past by going back to the time mentally.
Beauty Boarding -- one of the ancient literary dens of Dhaka -- is located at the middle of Shris Das Lane, with a signboard at the top of a small front gate that announces its name in Bangla. I started feeling the fragrance of history just keeping a step inside the main gate as its yellow-painted walls date back to at least THREE CENTURIES. And there’s something in its calm surrounding that still reflects nostalgia for a long-lost past. From the front gate, a narrow, unpaved road leads to a central courtyard. The first thing that may seem inviting to anyone is a semi-square garden in the middle of the yard, surrounded by mango trees and different species of flowers planted in small tubs.
The garden offers some cool to its visitors if the season is summer.
The history of Beauty Boarding is quite interesting. It is said well-known poet, Shahid Quadri, arranged a literary gathering in 1960s here which was the beginning of Beauty Boarding’s association with our literary efflorescence in the following decades. Poet Nirmalendu Goon is believed to have stayed at the boarding for five years, while prominent literary figures like Ahmed Sofa, Humayun Azad, Humayun Ahmed, and Abu Zafar Obaidullah came here to talk about new ideas.
There is living facility in Beauty Boarding. Total 25 rooms are there among which 12 are single- bedded rooms, and the rest are double bedded rooms. Rent of the house is 100 BDT for single bed rooms, and 200 BDT for double bed rooms per night. Coming to the food, items available in their menu are simple, everyday items one eats at a Bengali home. People come here to soak themselves in history and to get a taste of going back in past.
But if you ask me about my favorite one from their menu, I will definitely go for “Sorshe Ilish”. Having Rice with sorshe ilish by sitting on middle of their yard during a lazy afternoon will give you a refreshing feeling for sure.
Now coming to the issue of preservation of this beautiful monument, one can easily be able to observe that this place is suffering from illogical negligence. But the fact is, proper care is necessary to preserve this monument. Because, the history of a community contributes to its personality.
Preserving the history of a place through its significant historic resources gives a community its unique character. Historic preservation provides a link to the roots of the community and its people. It adds to the quality of life making for a more livable community. Historic preservation is an important investment in the present and future. So, for our own sake we should preserve this place of historical interest in a very caring way.
