In the murky depths of Buriganga, he looks for your lost treasures
Abdul Gani was sitting on the banks of the Buriganga, staring out at the once-expansive river before him.
"The river never turned me away. When I came to it, helplessly, and dove into its depths, I always came back with something," Gani said, expressing his gratitude to the river.
Gani had spent 40 years making a living by diving into the river. Although he gave up the profession some three years ago, his love and passion for both what he did and the river remains unchanged.
His salt-and-pepper hair and wrinkled skin do little to take away the youthful exuberance from his glistening eyes and the smile on his lips when he talks about the Buriganga.
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"I can dive into the water without a machine," he said. He meant an oxygen tank, of course.
How does he manage without the tank? Gani, or Gani Mama as locals cry out to him, fashioned an oxygen mask while he was still in the profession.
"I can stay underwater for an hour or two. It's a different world there. There are many fishes. You can even touch those!" he said.
Gani's story may prompt visions of a diver going into the deep blue and retrieving pearls and treasures. In reality, Gani's adventures were a little darker at the start.
"I have been burying as many dead bodies as I have found from the river in these forty years," Gani said.
Apart from bodies, Abdul Gani also retrieved parts of ships and other vessels. He would also salvage various items – rice and wheat among those – from sunken vessels.
He had also helped in rescue operations, teaming up with the fire service.
A harrowing start
Abdul Gani's home was on the banks of the Padma in Sureshwar, Shariatpur.
He came to Dhaka in 1971 with his mother and stayed in Old Dhaka's Nazirabazar. When he was around 8, Gani's mother was employed in the same house they stayed in. The house belonged to the late mayor Mohammad Hanif.
After the war started, they were sent back to the village with 15 kilograms of rice, 5kg dal and Tk15.
Being in Dhaka on the eve of the start of the war, Abdul Gani was fortunate to go to the Racecourse ground and listen to Bangabandhu's historic 7 March speech.
"I witnessed the speech. The day the country became independent after nine months of war, my uncle and mother crossed the Padma and came back. There was no shortage of corpses in the river then," he recalled.
There were so many corpses floating in the river that my mother could not eat fish from there for 20 years, he said.
Soon Gani returned to Nazirabazar. In trying economic times, he took up finding bodies in the river and putting them into trucks.
He would also hand over any weapons he found. Six or seven years later, he took up diving professionally.
The ins and outs
Explaining the profession, Gani said the work came as contracts. If a ship or boat sank, divers were contracted to recover the cargo.
"You got paid after delivering on the contract. If goods worth Tk1 lakh sank, a diver could get Tk10,000-20,000 retrieving those. You were paid based on what you got."
It was larger companies that mainly employed them as drivers.
Gani would also work around various bridges, where he would be contracted on a daily allowance. He could get Tk2,000-10,000 per day. But more tasks meant a team was required. Money was then divided among members of the team.
The agreements were to dive to locate an object. Even coming up empty-handed would result in some payment, but it would be less than if the object had been found.
A world of wonders
Gani said the world beneath the river's surface was full of stones. He also claimed to have found a large statue at the bottom of the river.
When asked about the discovery of the statue, Gani said, "After the flood of 1988, all the dirt in the Buriganga was cleared. It was then coming out from under the ground. We went for a swim and saw it. There is no dearth of goods [things] there," he said.
He also said there was much more to see, such as ships which had sank during the war. Many were yet to be explored.
Of treasures, Gani said he had found gold, silver, copper, bronze and iron – everything from the river.
Gani and his team once found 90 bhori worth of gold jewellery from the bottom of the river. The find was shared among five divers.
When a diver comes across something on his own, he then has ownership over it, Gani informed.
If an owner isn't found, it is sold in the market.
Gani believes the river punishes anyone who is not trustworthy. He also mentioned a Pir, to whom the whole river belongs.
"Accidents befall those who do not pay their staff on time. Like there are police stations above the river, there are police stations below it," he said.
So far, Abdul Gani has worked as a diver in the Buriganga, Kaliganga, Ichamati, Shitalakhya, Padma, Meghna, Jamuna, Dhaleswari, Turag, Brahmaputra and Karnaphuli, among others.
He has even travelled to India to work as a diver there once.
According to him, the three rivers in Chandpur are the most dangerous.
"No one can survive where the three rivers meet. You can't bring anything up to the surface from there," he said.
As Gani stared across the Buriganga, his brows furrowed. "The river is dying," he declared.
"The water was alive before. Big shrimps, large fish…now it's just dirty water. There is nothing there," he said.
Gani no longer dives anymore, but he teaches others to dive.
According to Gani, even the diving scene has changed. It's a world dominated by big contractors now.
There is no heart in what was once an art, according to him.
"I come here to see my friends. I know not everyone can dive. I could because God blessed me with the skill. You can't go into the depths if you are afraid. It's not for everyone," he said.
