Each for the other

An empty-handed Rozina Begum stood stranded at Mogtula Bazar in Ishwarganj upazila with her two kids on Monday night.

Out of food and out of money, the family was a long way from their home at Sutibhorat in the upazila, still another seven kilometres from where they were.

The 26-year-old garment worker had just been through something of a traumatising experience. Trying to navigate the deserted roads amidst the lockdown, the family was down on their luck.

Their journey started on Saturday. Upon being informed that her factory at Malekabari in Gazipur would open from Sunday, Rozina and her kids -- two-year-old Imran and six-year-old Jahidul -- made the difficult journey to her workplace, only to be informed that it would remain closed.

What's worse, she now discovered herself without any money, as the factory did not pay her outstanding salary. Her husband Abul Bashar, a rice shop staffer at Gazipur, borrowed Tk 400 to help send them home, while a kind man gave another Tk 100 hearing of their woes. But all of it ran out just to get to Mogtula Bazar.

Suddenly, when all hope seemed lost, a car stopped by.

The man who came out of the car was none other than Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Ishwarganj Md Zakir Hossain.

Out on his night patrol, the UNO discovered the distraught family waiting by the road, afraid and unfed, as whatever little light food they carried had run out long before.

As Rozina narrated their nightmare scenario, the UNO couldn't help but be moved, he told this correspondent.

"The sufferings cannot be described in words. When I met her, she had a bag on her shoulder, one child on her lap with the other one in tow," said UNO Zakir.

After hearing her out, he immediately made up his mind to assist the family. He picked them up on his car and not only dropped them home, but also left them with some daily essentials to help see out the darkening days.

The family was a mix of relief and ecstasy. "The arrival of the UNO brought a kind of relief I have never experienced in my life," Rozina said, gratefully.

But as they say, helping is not a one-way traffic, for the joy that Rozina felt was matched by what Zakir Hossain felt too.

"This is a rare experience. I am immensely happy that I could fulfill my assigned duty to help people in such trying times," the kind man said.