Although Bangladesh only came into existence
in 1971, the land which is today Bangladesh has strong ties to the Middle East.
Bangladeshis in the Middle
East form the largest part of the worldwide Bangladeshi diaspora.
Bangladeshis who come to the Middle East are
primarily guest workers and day laborers.
According to the National Center for Statistics and
Information (NCSI), as of November-end, 2016 in Oman, the number of
Bangladeshis stood at 694,449, with Indians second highest at 691,775 with the
number of Pakistani expats standing at 231,685.
Like other Asian expatriates,
Bangladeshi citizens have sought work in the region primarily to send
remittances back to their families.
While I was working for an
International Project in 2013, we were given a small room as site office which was
near to Pantry. On my first day of office, I was not familiar about the individuals
as well as office layout. I remember when I used to pass by the Office pantry for
attending the meetings with my manager at Engineer’s office, there was an office
boy around 21 years of age,5’6”/ 7’’ height with fair complexion in white shirt
with a black jacket and blue pants often greeting me with a pleasant smile
‘Good Morning Maidam’.
I , in return used to greet him
back by saying ‘Good Morning’ and rushed to the meeting. When I came back to
office, I went to pantry and made myself a cup of tea. There he is! Standing
and making tea for all other office staff.
Hi! I said, and introduced myself “My
name is Anuradha. What is your good name?
He replied ‘Everyone calls me
Mitoo. You may also call me with this name. No problem’
Hmm.. Mitoo..!! I repeated.
Mitoo means sweet and easy to
pronounce too. Nice name.!!
I made my cup of tea with milk and
tea bag and went back to my room.
I took a sip while checking my
emails.
Yuck. I didn’t get the mixture
right in my tea cup it seems, immediately went to pantry and emptied the cup.
‘What happened Maidam?’ Asked Mitoo
Nothing, just I didn’t liked my
tea, added more sugar it seems.
‘I will make it for you Maidam. ‘Said
Mitoo
Umm. It’s ok let it be. Pls give a
cup of green tea, will try this.
Ok. Here you go maidam.
Thanks Mitoo!! That’s so nice of
you..!!
By the way , you should say ‘Madam’ but
not ‘Maidam’…
Yes Madam!
I took my cup and went to my room
and had a sip, it’s very bitter in taste, may be its my first try of having
green tea.,,but thought somehow better than the tea which I made with milk.
Daily morning I used to have green
tea thinking “this is better than any other tea and coffees in the pantry.”
After a month, I observed that I
was having green tea happily without any muttering …Then I realized that as
Robin Sharma, a Motivational speaker said if anything you want to bring in
habit, you need to practice it for 21 days without a miss.
I guess, this worked for me and
having green tea became my routine.
One day, my friend Cumhur Samiloglu,
a Turkish national and myself came to pantry to have some coffee.
Mitoo greeted my friend ‘Guneydin’ (in
Turkish)
Gunaydin! Nasilsin( how are you)?
Said Cumhur
Iyiyim sen nasilsin( Am good how
are you?) My friend replied back.
I was shocked and didn’t expect
that Mitoo speaks Turkish language. I asked him ‘You are Bangladeshi. Right?’
‘Yes Madam’ he replied.
Mitoo, I can understand when you
speak hindi, as there are many Indians around and on top of it, most of us are fascinated
by Bollywood movies , so learning Hindi
is not a big thing for Bangladeshis.
But, how come Turkish? I asked him with
ounce of curiosity and bewildered expression on my face.
He replied with a gentle smile on
face and said “English (Gora/white) people, Turkish people also comes to pantry
for tea/ Turkish coffee/water etc.. As, I am into hospitality sector, I must
greet and treat well with my customers and people around with always gentle a smile and respond to their
questions. But, when I came here for the first time, I was not able to
understand neither English nor Turkish and in this office wing these Goras and Turkish
nationalities people are more compared to other nationalities. Therefore, I
don’t have any option left, and moreover, I all the time in the world am simply
sitting and have more free time as there
are very few people now. Later, when the
team size increases, more work will be there. So, I started repeating the words
they say and next day I used to greet in their language those two lines ‘Good
morning and how are you?’ Before they
do. That’s it, this was the first step taken in learning different languages.”
‘Hmm. Tusi Great ho Mitoo!’ I was
so impressed and appreciated him.
What is your education
qualification Mitoo?
I didn’t study much and left
school, he replied keeping the same smile on his face.
So, how many languages you can
speak fluently?
Bengali, my mother tongue, Hindi,
Arabic, Turkish and English.
Umm..what next ?
Nothing madam just waiting for the
right time to get into a big company as I am very much interested to do
computer job.
I am learning computer from my
supervisor too.
Good Mitoo. Keep it up. Always Aim
high!
Cumhur said ,’ büyük düşün’ (Dream
Big Mitoo) and left .
What else you are doing after
office hours?
Daily after office hours, I go to
gym as we have few gym equipment’s in the labor camp.
Good Mitoo. It seems your company
takes good care of you people. Nice.
Keep up the good work!
I came to my office room and
thought like ‘If one can dream of something and have faith in it, there will be
nothing to stop him. A person just by repeating and interacting with people
learned 3-4 languages with such an ease. Truly Commendable! These are the
people who have real thirst to achieve something great in life and ultimately
become successful one day by working for their dream each day’
Years later when the project is
nearing to close, Mitoo’s manager asked him to attend the interview which was happening
for airport services. And, he was one of the ten or fifteen candidates selected
out of 200 people because of his welcoming attitude, good personality and
English language which he picked up in all these years. He joined the new
company and they have given him necessary training to perform his works and
groomed him further. By knowing his language skills, his Manager in the new
company asked him to lead the team!
This is the short story of Mitoo! Which
certainly inspired me a lot and I strongly believe It’s an inspiration to many
people who often feel that they have not studied much..they don’t have
educational degree..blah… blah giving excuse all the time, this story of Mitoo
shows that if you have a strong desire to achieve something in life, something
bigger…then you yourself will have to do something about it rather than
ignoring your true potential and snubbing the most precious asset available
with you on earth i.e “Time & Health”.
The small steps which we take to learn something new in day
to day life either for fun or for acquiring new knowledge whatever the reason
may be, these will help us in one or the other way in reaching out to our
goals!
Keep doing the things you love and have fun! One day
opportunity will knock on your door! So keep learning..!!
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