The Bengal Art gallery is always a pleasure to visit. Of course like so many other things, it turns out that it may have been built with dodgy money.

The Bengal Art gallery is always a pleasure to visit. Of course like so many other things, it turns out that it may have been built with dodgy money. Its founder Abul Khair Litu is under suspicion for corruption (but is serving his remand time in hospital of course) …Yesterday some insiders were hopeful that he might get bail at the end of the month. Whilst the gallery continues to put on exhibitions, apparently the absence of the impresario has affected Bengal Foundation projects
And there is added reason to visit the area these days. The unbelievable good news is that Nandos is opening opposite the gallery very shortly! This is an incredible badge of confidence in the republic of Bangladesh by a foreign investor. I have no reason to believe that it too is locally associated with dodgy money but I do know that Robert Brazon’s brand had very difficult and humble beginnings. Mr Brazon was in his thirties when he decided he would market peri-peri chicken in South Africa. The banks rejected him doubting his ability to compete with KFC and Chicken-Licken. The chicken farms also initially did not come forward. But somehow he broke through the barriers and today his chain spans all five continents I believe. I have the good fortune of having not one but two in my home town of Cambridge. It is a shame that the marketing is overwhelmingly “Portugese” slanted and its South African origins are all but buried. So here is a snap of it in Dhanmondi opposite the Bengal ( you can see me in the foreground dressed as a bush. My way of dealing with the curfew):