Following the collapse of the Awami League government in the face of last year's July Uprising government, Sheikh Hasina and many other leaders of the party fled to India, largely settling in Kolkata's New Town.
Since August 5 last year, roughly 1,300 former ministers and the leaders of the Awami League, Jubo League, and Chhatra League have sought refuge in India and other parts of the world.
Mohammad A Arafat, a former minister of information and broadcasting who followed Hasina's trail, told Indian outlet The Print, "Bangladesh has been staring at the abyss since Hasina left.
"I have one goal: to make things right in Bangladesh again. I really don't have any hobbies now, or the time to play a sport, or keep myself engaged in any other entertainment in my life."
By work, he means planning political programmes in Bangladesh and keeping in touch with AL workers and senior leaders who are in exile.
"Although we are separated and isolated from our loved ones, we will continue to fight for them no matter where we are. We believe that the Bangladeshi people deserve better and our nation must be restored to the economic jewel in the crown of the region," Arafat said.
According to a former central committee member of the AL, the party's politicians and activists aren't the only ones who fled. Journalists, army officers, law enforcers and diplomats loyal to the regime also crossed borders.
"If you count them, the number will exceed 2000," the AL leader, wishing to remain anonymous, said.
Those who are in India have mostly settled in New Town, a fast-growing planned satellite city on the outskirts of Kolkata. Broad roads, shopping malls, fitness centres, and close proximity to the airport have made New Town the ideal residential hub for them.
'We are not here to relax'
According to the former minister, their lives have now fallen into a pattern: they offer prayers in the morning, engage in gym sessions or morning walks, hold online meetings every evening with AL leaders and workers across the globe. Throughout the day, they also harbour hopes of a return.
Among them is Sheikh Rehana, Hasina's sister. She was last spotted on August 15, paying tribute to a portrait of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Unemployed Hostel in Kolkata on the occasion of his death anniversary.
Also present in Kolkata is former home minister of Bangladesh, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who was photographed in Kolkata's famous amusement park, Nicco Park, last October.
At the time, law enforcers in Dhaka were hard-pressed trying to explain to the public how he had crossed the border.
"We have looked into the matter. If they had passed through immigration, we would have proof. In their cases, there is no proof… Many [AL ministers and leaders] left illegally. Some are still in the country, and many have been arrested by law enforcement agencies," Additional Inspector General of Police (acting) Shah Alam told the local press after the images of Khan went viral.
A former AL MP who lives in New Town told The Print that he meets Khan regularly.
According to him, the former home minister of Bangladesh has now rented a spacious apartment, where he regularly entertains guests, especially as party colleagues are now New Town neighbours.
Although Khan stays in Kolkata with his wife and daughter, he travels to Delhi every week for party meetings and also to meet high-level functionaries of the Indian state.
His son, Safi Muddassir Khan Jyoti, was arrested in Dhaka in September last year.
According to the former MP, Khan has been tasked with ensuring leaders and party members do not lose morale.
"We have not come here to relax and stay indefinitely. We have come here to stay alive and be ready to fight tomorrow," is the former minister's daily message to party colleagues who drop in at his apartment.
Unlike Khan, who is busy with weekly travels to Delhi and daily meetings in Kolkata, other leaders have been able to breathe easy since last August.
A 'discrete' party office?
On condition of anonymity, a former AL MP from Cox's Bazar said that life has fallen into a pattern now.
"I wake up at the crack of dawn and offer my prayers at the three-bedroom apartment I share with another Awami League MP. Then we both head to the neighbourhood fitness studio, which is rather impressive. I do weight training while my flatmate has enrolled for pilates classes," the MP said.
The duo rent a 1,500 square foot apartment for 30,000 rupees per month, which the MP doesn't find too steep. A mild irritant, however, is that the cook and the cleaner take too many unscheduled leaves.
"I am not used to cooking. Neither is my flatmate. But on days we are forced to cook, it is over a video call with my wife, who is still in Dhaka. She gives detailed instructions. This is new for me. By the time I return home to Bangladesh, who knows, I might take up a new career as a chef," the former MP said.
Post-lunch, evenings are spent in online meetings with the rank and file of the AL in Bangladesh, India, and other countries. The members share and dissect political news from their homeland and plan their next moves.
"Although we are separated and isolated from our loved ones, we will continue to fight for them no matter where we are. We are fueled by our love for our country, and we will always be connected to Bangladesh through our ideals, our pride, and our patriotism for our great nation," Arafat added.
Recently, the Bangladeshi press has been reporting of a "discreet party office" that belongs to AL in Kolkata, adding that Indian intelligence agencies are aware of it.
Although the former Cox's Bazar MP denied the report, Harun Al Rashid, a former Bangladeshi diplomat, said, "Yes, there is space we have rented in New Town where all of us meet. There are almost 1,300 party leaders in Kolkata. We can't possibly meet at the former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal's living room! But to call it an office would be a gross exaggeration."
A novel & a hair transplant
Far away from Kolkata's New Town, former Rashid has settled down in a quiet neighbourhood in Canada's Ottawa. Though not a member of the AL, Rashid is part of the party's ecosystem as a vocal supporter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and a strong critic of the Yunus administration.
After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, Rashid, then Bangladesh's ambassador to Morocco, was ordered to return home in December last year.
However, he delayed his return and began posting on Facebook against the interim government.
In Ottawa, he spends most of his time writing.
"I read less than I'd like, but I keep a paperback open somewhere in the house, five pages with morning tea, a chapter before bed," he added.
Rashid said he is self-employed now, which he finds unnerving at times. He keeps a simple budget and says no to work that pulls him too far from home.
In between his rants on Yunus, Rashid's day is made when he can write a clean paragraph, sitting at his desk. It is such days that have resulted in the manuscript for his first work of fiction, a dystopian novel on Bangladesh.
Titled The Mapmaker's Prayers, Rashid's story revolves around the fictional character of Wadud from the 1946 Bengal riots through Bangladesh's 1971 birth.
Another young AL MP from Dhaka, who has been staying alone in a two-bedroom apartment in New Town since December last year, has taken the free time at his disposal to get himself a headful of hair.
"I had a receding hairline when I escaped from Dhaka. My wife had been telling me for a few years to go for a hair transplant. But I was so busy as a first-time MP that I could never manage time in Dhaka," he said.
In January this year, he visited a hair transplant centre in South Delhi. "In such trying times, a new head of hair is something to feel good about."
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