Mother Club:  A 40-year-old swimming pool tucked away in a corner of Moghbazar

In 1981, Minu Chaklader and MA Chaklader, parents to two young boys, found themselves in a bit of a pickle. Their sons, Mithu and Titu were in the 7th and 5th grade, respectively, at the American International School, and the school authorities had just announced that every student would have to learn swimming that year. 

Now if you know about the 1980s Dhaka, there were not many swimming pools back then, especially for the kids to learn in. But Minu, a persistent mother, found out that at the Hotel Intercontinental there was a swimming pool where one could learn to swim. But the fee was a staggering Tk200 per person. That may not seem like much now, but at that time it was a lot. It meant Mithu and Titu's parents would have to pay Tk400 every day for each of them.

So, Minu Chaklader took her sons to the Shahidullah Hall at the University of Dhaka, and let them take a dip in the pond there. Their chauffeur was the main instructor for the boys. Many days went uninterrupted there and Mithu and Titu had almost learnt their way in the water until one day, the university authority intervened and said outsiders were not allowed there.

But their indomitable mother did not stop there. The next week, she took the boys to Gulshan Lake and just like before, the boys continued learning how to swim with their chauffeur.

"There we were, jumping in the Gulshan lake with cows and buffalos, and we were the happiest we could have been," Shamsul Alam Chaklader, or the little boy of the story Mithu, reminisces.   

The two brothers might have been the happiest back then, but the struggle to find a decent swimming pool for children kept troubling their parents. Minu Chaklader's husband MA Chaklader was an engineer by profession and a philanthropist by passion. 

If they could not find a swimming pool even for their boys, then what about the girls of the city? This thought kept bothering MA Chaklader. So, the next morning he got up and decided to construct his own swimming pool, right on the land he owned beside his residential building. 

"Being an engineer, Abba would often make something or change the plan of our home. So we were not surprised when one day we saw him with his measuring tools, taking notes in his notebook. We thought it was a crazy idea that he wanted to build a swimming pool," Mithu said recalling the early days. 

But leaving everyone speechless, Mr. Chaklader turned the six katha or 4,320 square feet land into a beautiful swimming pool. It took him six months to design and build the pool. He decided that it would solely be for women. 

The swimming club finally started in 1983 and for the last 40 years, more than 20,000 girls and women have learnt swimming in this club, including famous actresses like Suborna Mustafa, Shomi Kaiser, Parveen Sultana Diti, Humayun Ahmed's daughter Shila Ahmed and many others.

Even today, the club is active. Currently, there are 48 members who are learning and three female trainers who are teaching. The club opens at nine am and stays open till 5 pm. Members and learners can come to the club at any hour between nine to five from Sunday to Tuesday, and swim for an hour. It is kept closed on Mondays.

"As it is the exam season, you won't find a crowd now. During June-July, we get a lot of people because of the heat and also students don't have exams at the time," Shefali Akhter, one of the trainers, said. 

Two months ago, the club started a swimming session for boys as well. It starts at five pm after the women have left, and it is then kept open till 10 pm. 

"Abba wanted this place to be respected, hence the name 'Mother Club'"

Sometime around the 1980s, the Madhubagh area in Moghbazar was what we called 'the middle of nowhere'. No one would expect a swimming pool there, right next to the disorganised Hatirjheel from back then. 

But the lake was not like how we see it today, "It was a vast lowland swamp or 'beel' and beyond that you could see a forested area, where, according to my father, tigers roamed around," Mithu Chaklader said. 

"On top of that, Dhaka back then was a conservative place, especially the mohollas. There were concerns about 'what kind of place this is' or 'why  would girls be coming in everyday'. People were starting to spread rumours that some sort of illegal activity was going on here, etc.", Mithu said.

In the beginning, the idea of the swimming club was not accepted by the people. The neighbours also did not want to send their daughters here. 

Then the Chaklader couple came up with a solution, they gave the club the name 'Mother Club'. Since everyone is emotional about their mothers and have deep respect for them,  if the place was named as such, no one would disrespect it. The other thing they decided to do was to have Mrs. Minu Chaklader look after the club, which meant she was the one maintaining the entry books. Female trainers were appointed, and boys above 10 years were not allowed in.

Slowly, the venture began gaining acceptance, especially among actresses who did not want any media attention while they were learning a life skill. 

"Another reason that our Mother Club was trusted was that from the very beginning, Amma and Abba made sure that no boys were allowed to even stand in front of the entrance. Abba was respected to such an extent in our area that no one even dared to disturb the people around," Mithu said.

And as we spoke to Suborna Mustafa, she also said the same thing. "It was Shomi (actress Shomi Kaiser) who took me to the club. I was 25 or 26 years old back then, and it was quite late to learn how to swim. But I had a great time there. The trainers were very responsible, the water was clean and the area was safe. But the most important thing was it was not an open pool, meaning the pool area had a roof over it. So we felt safe that no one was able to see us, and also we were not getting sunburns," Suborna said.

The structure is still the same, it feels like a huge living room which has been turned into a pool area with blue tiles and white mosaic floor, although time has managed to leave its mark on it. The mosaic has black patches here and there, the adhesive between the tiles has picked up a reddish tint. But as you enter the complex, you can feel the warmth of a 'mohalla', which was once the heart of Dhaka city people.  

The pool water is filtered every week and chlorine is not used in cleaning it

The pool has two water streams that flow into it. Instead of Chlorine, they use a natural filtering process to purify the water. The streams have three layers of stones and foams to suck all the impurities. 

Md Ansaruddin Alam maintains the pool. "The foams are washed and dried in the sunlight every month and replaced with clean ones. The entire pool is cleaned every week."

It is also a must to take a bath and change clothes before getting into the water. There are six bathrooms where both members and learners can take baths and change. 

Shefali said, "This is a necessary step to keep the water clean. We carry a lot of dirt while we arrive at this place and we don't want all those to get into the water with us."

It is also necessary to wear a swimming cap, again, for the same reason. They provide swimming costumes, caps and goggles. A set of all these may cost you from Tk. 1,000 to Tk. 1,400. 

So, on a cloudy and humid day in May, when being at Moghbazar mor feels like a punishment, you can take a turn towards the Masjid Road and get to Madhubagh. At 357°C in Madhubagh, the oasis called Mother Club will cool you down.