Twice a year I take a fourteen-hour bus journey from Dhaka to my family's village near Rangpur, and then a rickshaw for the last part. I'm a garment factory supervisor, so I usually go home for the two Eid holidays, which is when everyone else in the country travels too.
Because the roads are so crowded at those times, I prepare quite carefully. About three weeks before, I book my ticket online the minute sales open, because tickets sell out within hours. A few days before I travel, I make a checklist. It always includes a power bank for my phone, a small pillow, earplugs, a refillable water bottle and some dry snacks like biscuits and roasted chickpeas, since roadside stops can be unreliable. I also pack gifts for my family separately, in a bag I keep with me rather than putting it under the bus. And the night before, I try to sleep early and eat something light, because a heavy meal and a bumpy road are a bad combination.
This preparation matters to me for a few reasons. The main one is that the journey can be exhausting and unpredictable. Once our bus was stuck in a traffic jam on a bridge for six hours, and the people who hadn't brought food or water really suffered. Being prepared means I arrive tired but not miserable. Also, I want to arrive in a good mood, because I only see my parents and my daughter, who lives with them, a couple of times a year. And honestly, preparing is part of the excitement. Packing the gifts makes me feel the holiday has already started.