An Eid to forget

Rendered jobless due to the ongoing restrictions imposed to contain Covid-19, a good number of the less fortunate like Mujibur Rahman passed the Eid day this year without having any special meal.

With no cash in hand, day labourer Mujibur and his wife, Mafia Begum, could not light fire in their earthen stove to cook any exclusive dish for their seven children even at noon on the Eid day.

Mafia Begum was found sitting alone under a tree looking dejected while this correspondent was visiting Suihari Majadanga village in Dinajpur Sadar upazila, where the couple lives with their children.

She initially did not want to share the troubles of her life with a stranger. But after being convinced that she was speaking with a journalist, she invited this correspondent to her house to meet her family.

A gloomy atmosphere was cast all over the tin-roofed house where all the children and their father were asleep in the middle of the day in different rooms.

Sensing a guest in the house, they all eventually got up and exchanged greetings with this correspondent. 

Mujibur came out of the house to feed his cow that was donated to him by the villagers.

He said the Eid last year was not as bad as this year's as he was able to manage new clothes for all his children by working at different agricultural fields that year.  

"The Eid this year has been the worst for the family," as he could not make a penny last month, during the countrywide lockdown enforced by the government. As a result, he failed to get new clothes for his children, except for the two youngest ones.

Nevertheless, Mujibur said he still hopes to turn the corner. "I'll get a job again when harvesting of paddy starts in the area."

His eldest daughter Shahnaz Parvin, a second-year Honours student majoring in management at Biral Government College, said she would have been in final-year if the pandemic did not break out.

Her source of pocket money from tutoring students in the area also dried out after March 17 last year since when educational institutions remain closed.

On Wednesday before the Eid day, her father received a government allowance of Tk 450 -- meant for the ultra-poor -- and he used the money to buy Eid clothing for her two of the youngest siblings, Shahnaz added.