Nilkhet (''নীলক্ষেত'') is a neighbourhood in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

, the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

city of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. It is located between

Dhaka University The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...

to the east,

Mirpur Road Mirpur Road is a long north–south road connecting the northern part of Mirpur and Dhaka University campus. This is one of the major roads in Dhaka. Mirpur road runs through Shyamoli, Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi. the main intersections of Mirpur ro ...

and New Market to the west, and Elephant Road to the north. The name ''Nilkhet'' (''nil'': blue or

indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

, ''khet'': field) implies that the area may have been used for indigo cultivation in earlier times. However, Nilkhet has a completely different identity today. The market has long been the center of the

second-hand Used goods mean any item of personal property offered for sale not as new, including metals in any form except coins that are legal tender, but excluding books, magazines, and postage stamps. Risks Furniture, in particular bedding or upholstere ...

book trade in Dhaka. It contains several dozen shops that deal in used books and magazines, especially English-language material published in the West. The Nilkhet is regularly patronized by the city's English-language readers, who go there in search of foreign books, journals and

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

that are either unavailable elsewhere or only available new at a prohibitive price. Thousands of people regularly visit Nilkhet book stores to find out their daily necessary books. Nilkhet High School

Because of its proximity to Dhaka University,

Dhaka Medical College Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (abbreviated DMCH) is a public medical college and hospital located in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. It houses medical school as well as a tertiary care hospital on one campus. The country's first eve ...

and

BUET Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, commonly known by the acronym BUET, is a public technological research university in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Founded in 1876 as the Dacca Survey School, it is the oldest institution for the study ...

, as well as several major colleges such as

Dhaka College Dhaka College ( bn, ঢাকা কলেজ also known as DC) is the oldest secular educational institution of Bangladesh located in Dhaka. It offers higher secondary education ( HSC). It has Honours and Masters programs as well which are aff ...

, Eden College and College of Home Economics the Nilkhet market has also become a major source of academic material for the city's students.

Textbooks A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...

of all levels (from

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

) and for all disciplines may be purchased at Nilkhet. It also has many shops that provide auxiliary services for students, such as

photocopying A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers u ...

word-processing A word processor is an electronic device (later a computer software application) for text, composing, editing, formatting, and printing. The word processor was a stand-alone office machine in the 1960s, combining the keyboard text-entry and prin ...

and

book-binding Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of ''signatures'', sheets of paper folded together into sections that are bound, along one edge, with a thick needle and strong thread. Cheaper, b ...

. Indeed, “photocopying at Nilkhet” is a common rite of passage for nearly all students of nearby universities during their undergraduate and postgraduate years.

References

External links

* Neighbourhoods in Dhaka {{Dhaka-geo-stub