Anika Tabassum

আমার কথা / The long version

আমার জন্ম চট্টগ্রামে, বড় হওয়া ঢাকায়, আর মন পড়ে থাকে রাস্তায়। I grew up between the hills of Chittagong and the noise of Dhaka, and my heart has been on the road ever since.

I have been travelling and writing about Bangladesh full-time since 2019. Before that I worked a desk job I will not name, saving every taka for a weekend bus ticket to somewhere green. একদিন বুঝলাম, the weekends had become the real life and the desk was the detour — so I left the desk.

Roddur — রোদ্দুর, meaning sunlight — is my notebook of the country: the chaa stalls and ferry ghats, the festival mornings, the grandmothers who teach me recipes I never asked for but always needed. I write the way I travel, half in Bangla and half in English, and I would not have it any other way.

আমি ছবিও তুলি, রান্নাও করি, আর অপরিচিত মানুষের সাথে গল্প করতে ভালোবাসি। I photograph what I eat, cook what I learn, and talk to strangers far more than is sensible. If a stranger has fed me on the road, there is a good chance they are somewhere in these pages.