Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.
– John Soule, Terre Haute Express (1851)
A few months after the Afghan war, I was sitting in the Dhaka office of Sajjad Sharif. Sajjad is an art critic and associate editor of the Dhaka-based Prothom Alo, a progressive newspaper often under attack from Islamists. The regular tea circle was assembled (artists, poets and journalists), talking about the 'Muslim street' (that elusive creature!).
For years, my personal dual existence between New York and Dhaka had been fairly unremarkable and unremarked upon. Now there was suddenly a desire to boil everyone down to their 'essence'. I was supposed to be some sort of reflective surface for 'the American street' – a farcical concept that I rejected.