Life at Kamalapur Railway Station

by Md Enamul Kabir 4th Feb 2016

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Being a central communication hub, Kamalapur railway station acts as a crucial point for livelihood for many under privileged segment and outright marginal groups of the society. Their struggle for survival, their hopes, aspirations and dreams, their small but not insignificant moments of happiness, I feel can be a story to tell.

Kamalapur also captured my imagination because of its novel architectural pattern. With its huge high roofs, conic bird wimp like domes, the station when erected in 1960s created a big impact on existing architectural images of Dhaka City. Its huge open platforms, the rail tracks that merge to infinity somehow tell a story of life and existence. To date it remains one of the point of interest for the tourists, both from home and abroad.

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The most important story of Kamalapur is of course the attitude and moods of people. As a hub, there cannot be more intriguing than the posture, position and looks of the people, who gather there, some to arrive and some to leave, yet some to stay. Different class of people, including the rich, the middle class and the poor tell their stories, through the language of the self, looks of the eye and expression of mind. This happens mainly because it is the point of entry for many in Dhaka, with hopes and dreams and for some the exit, with unfulfilled aspirations.

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At the very beginning the station was maintained very carefully, but slowly time passed and it lost its previous condition and day by day the station is losing his glory which we needed to document. What I think would distinguish my work is first I would like to show Kamalapur to be vibrant and active juncture. Secondly, from a compositional point of view my work will be in color, and thus naturally treatment of the matter would also be different.

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by Md Enamul Kabir

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