Dhaka, Sept. 17 -- There is a silent pauperization process going on amongst some but the rest seem to be doing fine. The crowd at the grounds of the DCC market at Gulshan 1 is one indicator. It's a place where the Dhaka city lives as people of all kind pour in to declare their identity, status and state of mind. This status is close to the Facebook kind and not of the nearby Gulshan variety. Here people don't alight from the car and walk into fancy shops but make a bee line for samosa and the fuchkawala- junk snacks ?- which in many ways describe a city's face.

There are many kinds of snacks -most centred on batter frying- and two other popular items- jilapi and samosa that make up the pack. Few will have jilapi only but like all sweet m...