Beautiful Bangladesh

Today’s post is slightly on the personal side. Not completely, but it is. For those of you who probably don’t know much about me, which is probably the majority of you, I was born in a small country named Bangladesh. Now I know some of you may be like, “Ahem, can you repeat that, sorry I just didn’t know such country existed”. And I get that, I have experienced such situations many times.

You see, someone out of curiosity would ask me where I’m from, and me being an open book, I’d answer with such enthusiasm, you know saying I’m from Bangladesh and all, and then I’d get a confused and ignorant facial expression from them. Then I’d have to break it down for them, so I’d say it’s beside India or Pakistan, and they would answer like “Oh, So your Indian”? And I’d just completely lose it on the inside.

So today, I’m about to fill you in with some information about this beautiful country I like to call my motherland. Now I swear, the next time someone asks me where I’m from, expect for me to just hand you the link to this particular post. I’m about to give you all the information I can.

Public Domain image via Pixabay

• Bangladesh has a population of 163 million people (163,654,860) as of July 2013 making it the world’s eighth most populated country.

• For such a large population, Bangladesh is a relatively small country, 147,570 km² (56,977 mi²), making it one of the world’s most densely populated countries.

• The largest city and capital of Bangladesh is Dhaka. The city has an estimated population of 15 million people making it one of the largest city in the world. It is known as the “City of Mosques”.

• In 1947, Bangladesh area was divided off from India and became the eastern area of the new country called Pakistan, the western part of which was on the other side of India. East Pakistan rebelled with a Civil war in 1971, and gained independence from the West (Pakistan) to become the country of Bangladesh.

• The currency of Bangladesh is called the taka.
• Over 30% of Bangladesh’s population live below the poverty line, however, the economy and standards of living have been improving over recent years.
• Over 98% of Bangladeshis speak the official language of Bengali. Which is the language that people gave lives for, in 1952 Bangladeshis gave their lives for the right to speak their language.

• The national animal of Bangladesh is the endangered Royal Bengal Tiger.

• The Magpie Robin (or Doyel or Doel) is the national bird of Bangladesh.

• The national flower of Bangladesh is the white-flowered water lily, called Shapla.

• Jackfruit (Kathal in Bengali) is the national fruit and the Mango tree is the national tree of Bangladesh.

• The most popular sport in Bangladesh is cricket. The national cricket team first participated in the Cricket World Cup in 1999.
• Bangladesh is home to the world’s longest sea beach. Cox’s Bazar is an unbroken, 125 km sandy sea beach with a gentle slope.
• Bangladesh is home to the world’s longest sea beach. Cox’s Bazar is an unbroken, 125 km sandy sea beach with a gentle slope.
• Bangladesh is sometimes called “the playground of seasons” because it has six – not four – separate seasons.

I find that whenever Bangladesh’s name comes in the international media platform, it is because of some sort of negative reason. And that always breaks my heart because, I know how much potential beauty this country has. So hopefully this post gave you a nicer picture of my beloved motherland.