His Eid is different now
He always returned to his hometown during Eid holidays with new clothes for the children of his family.
His three little nephew and nieces would eagerly wait for him to come home.
Being a college student with no steady income, Siddiqur bought panjabis at wholesale from factories in the capital's Mirpur and sold them elsewhere to earn the money he needed to buy the gifts.
This Eid, his days would mostly be spent learning how to do everyday chores without his eye sight.
“The children always asked me to adorn their hands with henna,” Siddiqur Rahman told this correspondent at the National Institute of Ophthalmology (NIO), where he is being treated.
The 23-year-old Titumir College student, managed to force a smile. “This would be my first Eid in darkness. My world is really different now.”
He then wiped a drop of tear off his cheek and continued, “I know it would take a miracle for me to see again. So I am learning how to survive without it.”
He also remembered how he used to go to Eid prayers with the kids and his brother and came back home to the delicacies prepared by his mother. Whenever he felt unwell or sad, he spent time with the children and felt better.
“But I do not want to brood over grievances. I want to move on,” he said, adding that he had no other ailments.
He had gone to a mosque near the hospital with his friends once.
On July 20, when he was hit on his eye by a tear gas canister fired by police at Shahbagh, he was supposed to attend an English class in Uttara to prepare for BCS exams. But now the third-year student of political science has no clue as to what future awaits him.
“I want to finish my studies at any cost and live with dignity. I do not want to be anyone's liability,” he said.
His father died when he was only three, leaving his elder brother to become the breadwinner in the family. He worked as a day labourer at construction sites.
After his eyes were damaged, he was treated at NIO for a week. He was then taken to Sankara Nethralaya at India's Chennai on July 27. With no hope of improvement, Siddiqur came back home on August 11.
“The thought of my family waiting for me in Mymensingh's Tarakanda before Eid haunts me,” he said.
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