WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE
From Here featuring Paola Fornari
Q. What brought you to Dhaka, Bangladesh, and
when?
We arrived in January 2011, for my husband's job with
the EU. We will be moving to Accra, Ghana, in
September.
Q. What are the advantages of living in Bangladesh
for a writer?
For an expat trailing spouse writer, one advantage,
compared with other places where I have lived, is that
other activities were limited, so there was lots of time!
But more seriously, there was a huge amount of
fodder, in the country's recent history and its people.
Everyone I met had a story, and was happy to share it with me.
Q. Did your writing output increase when you lived in Bangladesh?
Enormously. It was the first time I kept a blog, and there was always something to
write about. In addition, I was able to explore neighbouring countries, and wrote
about them too. And In the last six months, I wrote my book, Joyriding in Dhaka,
about my experiences in Bangladesh.
Q. Is there something you found hard to cope with in Bangladesh?
The traffic. Horrendous. The lack of freedom to do what I wanted when I wanted. The
status of women, particularly the poor. But most of all, the in-your-face inequality.
Q. What impact did Bangladesh have on you emotionally, sensorally or
intellectually and did you incorporate this into your writing? Could you include
characters and setting?
It made me aware of the issues people less fortunate than myself have to face, such
as discrimination and violence. I made it my business to raise awareness about
these in my writing.
Q. What are local attitudes to writers compared to home?
People have a great respect for writers. Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore
was a Bengali. Every Bangladeshi can quote him and sing his songs.
Q. Swapping cultures will always present new aspects to moral conclusions
and assumptions. Does this reflect on your writing?
Certainly living in different cultures has affected what I write about. But I think I have
always been interested in making the most of where I live, seeing the quirky aspects
and sharing my experiences with others. And there has always been a strong social
angle. In Tanzania I wrote about a beggar who made it to the Special Olympics; in
Uruguay I highlighted a project for drop-out adolescents; in Belgium I described
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