Compared to the rising intensity of summer heat, the country's winter has been losing its bite over the last few decades. Winter, however, comes every year, the early signs of which begin to show up from the month of November, Kartik-Agrohayon in the Bangla calendar. The traditional and typical views associated with winter are still found in the rural areas, though fleetingly. When it comes to the cities, the age-old winter features are conspicuous by their shocking absence. Today's younger generations require a stretch of their imagination to visualise the scenes of winter in Dhaka 30-40 years ago. In those days people shivered in cold while outdoors by night or did not feel like drop winter wear even after the end of the season.
Today's youths have to veritably call up the scenes to have an idea of the past severity of winter. Almost similar pictures prevail in villages. Thanks to the increasing population density, disappearance of pastoral expanses and the advancing aridity, the normal winter cold is seen being invaded by high temperature, which is abnormal. The casual climate watchers may attribute this altered pattern of rural winter to the process of 'global warming'. Some may dismiss these people for being over-reactive. But given the recurrences of faint winters, and their virtually non-existent presence, saying farewell to the season doesn't seem an aberration. Except the occasional blanketing of villages and cities with thick fog, the country is fast being shorn of the age-old features of Bengal winter.
In spite of the myriad winter celebrations in Dhaka, the seasonal menaces in the capital take newer forms with the passing of years. Dust is a long-prevalent winter scourge in the city. Over the last few years, this menace has emerged as one of the most dreadful health threats to the Dhaka-dwellers. This capital has lately been following a trend in the tasks of construction and repair of roads. Few winters pass by when at least a dozen vital roads are not tampered with by the authorities. Most of these authorities remain oblivious to the fact that winter sees little rainfall, and due to the dry weather, the air remains filled with dust and dust-particles.
With a lot of major roads and neighbourhood alleys lying dug out, mounds of loosened earth piled up in the nearby spaces, moving through the dust-laden air becomes a nightmare for the pedestrians and rickshaw passengers. This is how the once loved winter descends on the capital and the other large cities, and triggers scores of miseries for their residents. Perhaps there are few city populations in the world, who are made to go through unspeakable ordeals in their capitals -- that too in a favourite season of theirs.
Unlike in the past, the roads of Dhaka this year offer a dreadful look. The digging work of the elevated metro rail goes on in full swing. The work started a couple of years back. The residents have silently put up with the temporary disruptions to traffic movement as well as the inconveniences caused by traffic diversions. But the brief gridlocks at turnarounds and the menace of dust kicked up by the large speeding vehicles continue to get worse.
Cities in a lot of countries experience these dislocations during the construction of metro rails or sub-ways. But what keeps Dhaka apart is the nonchalance of the construction authorities towards the people's sufferings caused by the narrowing of roads -- and the dust-filled dry winter air. Alternatives are not being mulled. This is how the already bleak winter, once the most longed-for in Dhaka, keeps deteriorating into a dreaded season. The winter dust these days only adds to the city's list of notorieties.
