The Hustle

The bewildering fact that even common engineering materials had their perverted alternate local names, baffled our bookish brains. You have to know what to ask for, and where to ask for. We were thrown into a world where it felt like our educated guesses and learned knowledge were ineffective. Thus, locating the places to acquire the desired engineering materials proved to be very difficult. We scoured through almost every notable place of the Dhaka city and traveled to almost all the outskirts, in the search for information.

The greater Nawabpur and its surrounding area holds its name to have collective numbers of shops & warehouses (near 3000) to supply all sorts of materials for engineering needs. But, its convoluted alleyway and overcrowded (with people and products new or pawned) narrow streets, can be daunting for any citizen or buyer. Fortunately, we grew up in such chaos of ghetto areas of Old Dhaka. Yet, finding the right thing seemed like its own campaign. Scraped metals, pipes, tiny parts, motors and every other things had their own designated blocks in Nawabpur (but indistinguishable to unfamiliar eyes). After walking through all the nooks & corners for weeks we finally mapped out the names of alleyways and their specialty. We bought about everything from this hood. Unfortunately, most glass-cutter did not dare to cut a donut shaped glass with large inner diameter. Doubting their glass integrity and fearing of wasting the product. We even went as far as Megha Port (outside the city) to find the suitable kind of glass dealer. Finally, we happened to meet someone from Mohakhali area, who took upon the task to cut such odd shaped glass for us.

We were fully aware of the prerequisite spontaneity, that is to be adaptive with the machine design as we looked for the available materials in the common market.

We were already contributing in our families and saving up money on the side to participate in engineering project competitions. Since, we determined our academic future, we decided to invest in the independent research. From the beginning we knew it is going to be bit costly for us and tough. However, we believed our industrious mindset will persevere through any impediment. (Means we had the rare skills to persistently bargain and work hard like no other.) Later, seeing our enthusiasm, even our kind supervisor helped us with some emergency purchases.

Thus, with solicitous support from our supervisor Dr. Ahmed, we rushed to buy full amount of iron required for the machine. Buying scrap mild-steel sheets by weight was lot cheaper than regular deals. These sheets just needed good amount of scrubbing, which posed no inconvenience to us. Meanwhile, we became very close to an experienced mechanic of Dholaikhal area, Mr. Manik Mazumder. He adored us like nephews because, we were sincere students pursuing higher-studies. Uncle Manik agreed to become our mentor to guide us through the building of the machine. We showed him our drawings, and he introduced us to the tools & techniques to make it reality.