Joy ride / জয় রাইড 

Dhaka – a megacity accommodating 15 million people. The one certainty you are sure to experience here is a dense crowd. Heavy traffic is the natural consequence of overpopulation and perhaps unplanned expansion. As people try to make their way through their day-to-day lives, their resolves are constantly put to the test. Only about 7 percent of the city is covered by roads, allowing an average speed of just 6.7 Kilometers per hour. Other than a privileged few, most rely on public transport. During rush hours, people fill lucky to have the opportunity to be packed up like sardines inside banged-up, discoloured, rusty old cans affectionately called ‘busses’. The ones losing the battle to get on can do nothing but wait. Getting a ride, however, doesn’t guarantee to move on. The traffic is slow and at times totally stagnant. However, the city dwellers, most of them at least, have long since traded in bitter frustration for calm acceptance. What else can they do anyway? So, they wait, patiently, sometimes dozing off to a dream of a future with zooming metro rails, smoke-free skies and noise-free streets. Hope keeps the wheels turning, an inch at a time.

The documentation had been extended with image cutouts. ‘Tears of Joy’; the theme music that was created from audio records of unfit buses collaborated with artist Shawrid Shams.

Tears of Joy – Shawrid Shams | Turjo Mushfiq