“Sir, are you a Bengali?”

I looked up and saw this young gentleman standing in front of me. I was enjoying a nice glass of red wine sitting on the terrace of the Executive club in the Marriott enjoying the strong breeze outside. Had just finished chatting with Sharmila when it started raining and I had to move in. I caught up on a few more phone calls and was catching up on messages for the day, when this gentleman asked me if I was a Bengali.

I kept looking at him wondering now he might have guessed it.

“How did you guess?”

“I thought I heard you speak in Bengali”

I tried remembering the calls.

“Indeed, now I remember. I was talking to my best friend in Australia – Avijit – in Bengali”.

And that is how our friendship started. Mahmudul is from Bangladesh (Dhaka to be precise) and moved to Canada for studies and work. But has ever since moved to Guayana and wants to live here and work here! The temperatures, the cricket, the soccer… everything suits his lifestyle.

We talked for quite some time till it was time for him to get back to his work. Hope to run into this enterprising young gentleman again!