Dhaka, Oct. 31 -- There was a time when snacks were not thought to be worth anyone's serious attention. That was some time ago though when Dhaka was barely an urban pimple growing on the face of the new capital city of a new state. But of course snacks were always there and so was the city and they were going through growth, change and finally a transition that was beyond imagination as one stood on the footsteps of the fifties, sixties and seventies.

The old and the new divide

Once, a long time ago, after 1947, the city had two major sections: the hard core old city and the middle class section that lived next to it. The current new city simply didn't exist. The hardcore old Dhaka was the Nawabi zone centered around Sadarghat, Patuatul...