Gray river and grayer skies Grim face with evil eyes Smoky smokestacks and sooty walls Dirty doings in dirtier halls Broken roads with open holes Gangster youth with Bamboo poles Smelly garbage in open sight Poor beggars in hungry plight Crowded streets and betel leaves Sidewalk corpse but no-one grieves Spit that decor the peeling paints Mirpur muggers and con man saints Gulshan checkposts and baridhara guards Towering walls with glass shards Police convoys and wrong way cars Fat garment-wallas in hotel bars Screeching ambulances but no one yields Kids everywhere on cricket fields High rise offices in gulshan avenue Beggars in slums feeling blue Old and new side by side Rich and poor Dhaka divide Teeming millions jostling for space Life goes on in an endless rat race