The British Museum-A World Squeezed within Four Walls

By: Sarwar Morshed

The SOAS Library (School of Oriental and African Studies, an Institute of University of
London) at Russell Square in London became my favorite haunt when I started working
on my dissertation. As I had to go to the library two or three times in a week, the minutest
details of the area could not escape my attention. But one colossal establishment arrested
my attention from the very beginning of my routine journey to that area by the iconic
London Bus because of its distinctive architectural structure and mammoth size. A
cosmopolitan crowd throbbing with excitement transformed the place into a real life
anthropological museum and added to the appeal of the regal structure. I had no doubt
that it must be a “must-see” in London and decided to explore this Roman-looking
establishment.

I was at the fag-end of my academic sojourn in London and was on my tip-toe to drink
the cup of beauty of Samuel Johnson’s darling city to the lees. As per my plan, I came to
conquer the place on a certain Friday in February, 2007. In the expedition, I got my
beloved better-half Mousumee as my trusted deputy. After returning some books to the
SOAS library, both of us directly came to the Brobdingnagian building. And to our utter
delight, we discovered that it was the globally celebrated British Museum!

We entered the building with throbbing hearts. At the entrance, we were a little bit
confused, as we were not sure whether to buy tickets or not. We saw no people buying
tickets. From my observation the logical deduction to which I arrived was simple-free
entrance, which added to the pleasure of Mou who, in my judgment (I can say as an
aside), is penny wise, pound-foolish. But she believes in the “Conspiracy Theory”- the
mercenary Britons would not allow visitors to explore such an immensely attractive place
which is full of treasures of perennial appeal without paying even a penny. You have to
pay $50 to see Madame Tussauds, $36 for ticket fee to see and ride London Eye! She has
got concrete evidences- both synchronic and diachronic. So, to avoid any ‘apprehended’
trap inside, we approached the reception. We were told that entrance was absolutely free.
Incredible! Burying ‘Conspiracy theory’, we began to plan our tour inside the museum
from the information booklets and maps.

We sat on a bench in front of the huge, amphitheatre-like library. From the information
booklet we came to know what a vast collection of ‘seeable’ paraphernalia this museum
is! A world squeezed within four walls. A world in miniature. Because of time constraint,
we decided to visit the Egyptian Gallery and the latent, sub-conscious patriotism made us
to pay a visit to the ongoing exhibition in the Bengal Gallery.

We started our exploration from the home front i.e. Bengal Gallery. The ongoing
exhibition on Bangladesh and West Bengal was our actual attraction there. The exhibition
themes were very carefully and wisely selected. One theme featured the story of
legendary Gazi-Kalu, the Muslim saints who had tigers as their pets and the other one
featured the perpetually appealing love-story of Radha-Krishna. The pictorial
presentation of our ‘own stories’ (Peripheral productions) in an alien but globally
important place (Centre) added a new dimension to the stories and made us feel proud.

After finishing ‘Home Exploration’, we hurriedly started for our Nile Invasion. In fact,
we were burning with excitement to see the Egyptian Gallery. I personally was obsessed
with ‘Pyramid’, ‘Cleopatra’, ‘Nile’ etc. So was Mou. We did not have to waste much
time to get to our destination.

We entered the Egyptian Gallery, full of excitement. We noticed that this was the most
crowded part of the museum. People of all races and backgrounds were expressing their
wonder at the contents of the section. A group of Mongoloid students led by a person
with professorial air were taking notes. And there were the ceaseless clickings of
cameras. But these incidents could not distract our attention from the dead ones who
passed away millennia ago. Yes, I am speaking about the mummies. To be frank, we
were so excited that we could not decide where to begin and how much time to spend on
an item as the closing time was looming large. So we started visual browsing sporadically
and hastily. Each item was a wonder in itself. The thought that I was standing in front of
the much talked about and one of the greatest mysteries of all times i.e mummies made
me feel special and thrilled. Every visitor seemed to be in wonderland in the true sense of
the word. How could the Egyptians master the art and science of dead body preservation
thousands of years ago whereas the space-age, bio-tech scientists cannot unfold the
mystery, let alone achieve the feat? Is it true that the ETs (Extra-terrestrials) helped the
Egyptians in the science of mummification? I was randomly pondering over these things
when an excited Mou brought me to the world. ‘Cleopatra’ she almost shouted. The name
magnetically attracted me to its direction. ‘Was this the Cleopatra for whom Antonio, one
of the pillars of the Roman triumvirate forsook the world? Shakespeare whispers to me,
‘The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them..’

I was spell bound and voraciously drinking the posthumous beauty of Cleopatra. But the
item description did not specifically say which Cleopatra was on display. Was that an
ordinary Cleopatra bearing the generic name? But that did not dishearten me much. I was
engrossed in Cleopatra and that was enough.

The Egyptian Gallery is a wonder. The way the items have been presented, the manner of
the item description and last but not the least, the X-ray of the mummies give the visitors
a vivid idea about the ancient Egyptian civilization.

We came out of the British Museum-beaming-after our successful Nile exploration.

Needless to say, fully content. Cleopatra’s beauty drunk to the lees. Mousumee went to
the extent to say that her British Museum trip alone was sufficient to make her sojourn in
Britain hundred percent meaningful. I had no reason to disagree.

[Sarwar Morshed teaches at the Department of English, University of Chittagong]