I remember during the admission test at Notre Dame College way back in mid 90s, we were given a booklet along with the application form which we were supposed to go through as part of the preparation process for the test. The book contained the background of establishing the college, along with some fine description about the Christian faith, the ideologies etc. I came to know more in detail in Bangla language who 'probhu jishu' and 'mata Mary' were and how they are related to my admission into the best college in Bangladesh. I cleared the test well and I got enrolled there too. Other than having received quality education from the best teachers during that time, I also came to know about various charity works the college was undertaking, such as work for education program, where I found many students, mostly tribal people, who work for the college in exchange of free education. Gradually, I also came to know about the mission's religious objectives which underpinned the quality social service and top class education. So much so for Notre Dame College, missionary schools are much better performers not only in Bangladesh but also across other regions in South Asia too. Holy Cross, St. Joseph, St. Gregory school are only a few to name in Bangladesh.I was remembering all this when I found a strange similarity with this in a few of the country's leading freight forwarding companies such as DHL and Homebound. There seems to be a great number of management staff and ordinary employees belonging to a particular minority religion of Bangladesh. Initially I thought this to be a sheer coincidence, but after some careful observation, I realized that its beyond coincidence. I am ofcourse not leading to any sensitive argument here, but just a curious onlookers query...are there any employment quota in these companies based on a person's religious faith? I guess pretty much everybody knows that in Notre Dame College, there were quotas (I am not sure if there still are any) but does DHL and Homebound follow anything like that? Also, the kind of expression of religious loyalty (posters, statues, paintings) seen in their office premises makes the issue more interesting. I have decided to visit the offices of Islami Bank to find out if they have hung big pictures of Kaaba , Mecca, Medina on their walls or not, perhaps after that, we can start terming this phenomenon as 'corporate religion' in Bangladesh. Say Islami Bank is a Muslim company, HSBC and Grameen Phone are secular companies, ZTE and Huawei are Chinese Buddhist companies and DHL, Homebound are Christian companies. Sounds weird though, very weird. What is your take on this?
