Zeros galore

Even counting in itself could pose a "small" problem to a foreigner in Bangladesh. There is no word in Bangla for 1 million or for 1 billion. Bengalis use Lakhs, the equivalent of 100,000 (but written like 1,00,000). So “lakhs and lakhs of people” means that there are hundreds of thousands of people. Then, Bengalis also use Crore, which is 100 Lakh or 10 million (but of course written like 1,00,00,000).

There are also reports that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's father of the nation, mistranslated the lakh as million when he estimated the number of casualties in the bloody independence war. That would have turned "three lakh" (300,000) into "three millions" Bengalis killed by the Pakistanis.

Out of love and respect for all my Bengali friends I don't believe the story, but there are many people who think a figure of three million is unrealistic and incredible.