Every once in a while, we here at RS do really, really stupid things for money

The Challenge: Buy something to eat every hour for 10 hours spending no more than 200 take (plus 50 for drinks). Also, we have to keep moving all the time so we can eat at different places.

Participants: Zarif Masud and Rumman R Kalam         Photo: Darshan Chakma

Photo: Darshan Chakma

10 am - Our journey starts at Charukala, DU at 10. For breakfast, we had parata and dim bhaji opposite Charukala at Chobir Hut. The classic breakfast. 15 for the egg, 10 for two paratas.

Photo: Darshan Chakma

11 am - We walk to Kalabhaban, DU. We were still kinda full after the breakfast, so we just had some cucumber with salt(?!) Don't look at me, not my idea. It wasn't very good either. That was five bucks.

12 am - At Kalabhaban, we found a Kashmiri Aachar stand and we just had to try it out. We went for the cheapest ones we could find. Cost us Tk 10.

Meditating at the Temple of Aaam

Really thirsty, we found ourselves some papaya juice in front of the Library in Dhaka University. Also, we just HAD to get rid of the taste of the chips in our mouth. That was pretty good. 15 bucks a glass.

Rumman thinks he can take the puny chips on...and win.

2 pm - We are about to leave Kalabhaban. But not before we had a taste of some of the worst potato chips I've ever tasted. That cost us another 5 bucks. I blame Shaer.

1 pm - Now, I do not know why we were wandering around Kalabhaban, but we were. I mostly blame Shaer, our mentally challenged sub-editor. I blame him for a lot of things. Since we were there anyway, we decided to have the local favourite, pani-puri. It was okay, I guess. Not a huge fan. Price: 15 taka.

3 pm - We have some ice cream on the way to Puran Dhaka. We had to keep an eye on the budget, so we got the cheapest ice-creams we could find. Malai. Annoyingly enough, that cost 17 bucks.

"LOOK! Master has given us proper foood."

4 pm - Lunch at 4, which consisted of tehari at Chankharpul at a place called Shanti Biriyani. I love tehari. That was, for me, the best part of the day. 50 bucks for the tehari and 12 for coke.

5 pm - Kazi Alauddin Road behind Banga-Bazar to have lemonade at Beauty Lassi and Sharbat. 15 bucks.

Before leaving the area, we decided to try some bakorkhani. I do NOT know why, but we did. We had bakorkhani. 6 bucks for two. Again, Shaer. If only he wasn't writing our pay-checks.

"What the hell do I do for a living?"

10 pm - We started on our way back home. On the way, we got some saline and some water. That was our 10 o' clock right there. We had emerged victorious. A hard-fought win at a very retarded game. Trust me, the free food was not worth it. Neither is the money I get for writing this piece. While we were burning up in the heat and getting drenched in the rain (crazy weather!) going from one corner of Dhaka to the other, Shaer, that idiot, was having Pizza with his other friends at Bella Italia.

9 pm - So there we were, stranded in Dhanmondi, with two more meals to go and nothing to buy them with. We walked into Abahani, hands on our complaining stomachs. They were complaining pretty loudly, too. We've been out all day in the heat. Our feet were sore. We had to call it a day. For our 9 o' clock meal, we each got an Antacid and we were so desperate, we swallowed it with water instead of chewing it.

HOT DOOOG. AAARGH. HOT DOOGGG.

8 pm - Really tired, and eager to get our 8 o clock meal done, we stumbled upon a hotdog stand next to Abahani. Without really thinking about it, we bought it. Turns out its 60 bucks each.

The total for the food adds up to 193 taka and for drinks, 37 taka.

Tea seems to be really funny.

7 pm - Now, things start getting more bizarre. From there, we took a bus to Dhanmondi. We walked a bit to get to Rabindra Sharabar…to have tea. That's right. TEA! What the hell?! We spent 10 bucks on tea.