<i>When everybody wants to go home, they opt otherwise </i>

Four homeless boys -- Mosharraf, Mamun, Shukkur and Nizam -- sit outside Kamalapur Railway Station. "For me, life back home has nothing to offer," says Mosharraf. Photo: STAR

Perching on the edge of a raised platform outside the Kamalapur Railway Station in the capital yesterday, they wore the same expression -- a kind of vacant look on their faces.
When the rail station is bustling with home-bound people who want to celebrate Eid with their near and dear ones, these four kids see no difference between going home and staying in Dhaka during this greatest festival.
"For me, life back home has nothing to offer," 14-year-old Mosharraf sighed. Although he has a father and a stepmother in Noakhali, it doesn't make any difference to him.
Mamun, Shukkur and Nizam, who are of approximately same age, have similar stories to tell. And they belong to the group of homeless people in Dhaka to whom festivals like Eid brings no special meaning.
"It is rather a bad time for us because we almost lose our means of livelihood during such periods," Mosharraf added.
Many homeless people sleep on the spaces adjacent to the railway station at night. Most of them will not go home during this Eid, the boys said.
Tejgaon and Airport railway stations, Karwan Bazar kitchen market, Stadium Market, Shahbagh, Ramna, Chankharpool and Mirpur are some of the areas where several hundred homeless people sleep at night under the open sky.
Most of them are porters, day-labourers, hawkers, sweepers and scavengers while others are engaged in begging, mugging, stealing and prostitution. Each of them has a unique story of their life to tell.
Mosharraf came to Dhaka about four years ago to work as a domestic help at a house in Hazaribagh after his mother Zohra Begum died in a lightning strike at their home in Maichchhara village. A few days later, he came out of the house to buy some groceries but lost his way. He then went back to his village home with the help of some people.
"But my stepmother beat me up and my father, a farmer, drove me out of the home assuming that I have fled from my employer's house. Then I came to Dhaka again by a train."
He earns a living by selling abandoned water bottles and other items. He also sometimes carry luggage of railway passengers in exchange for money.
Mamun hails from Nangolpur in Comilla. His father is a drug peddler who married another woman after his first wife showed symptoms of mental disorder three years ago.
"My father is also a drug addict and my stepmother often used to torture me. So, I thought it is better to work as a porter than to endure such pains at home," he said.
But being a porter is not easy for a newcomer at Kamalapur Railway Station. "The old porters beat and drive us away as we charge less than they do. So, I ended up being a scavenger."
But Mamun did not give up. After saving some money, he invested that in buying newspapers from the agents and started selling them.
When this correspondent was talking to Mamun, Shirin, a 28-year-old woman in worn-out salwar and kamiz, appeared there and asked, "Would you give me some money? I have been starving since last night."
Shirin, who hails from Sadullapur, doesn't want to go back to his village home.
"My husband doesn't look after me as he has another wife, and my day-labourer father does not afford to feed me. Who will I go back to?" she said, adding that she came to Dhaka to find out her younger sister who works as a domestic help somewhere in the city.
"As I do not know where she lives, I've started begging here," she said.
Akash, a 15-year-old boy from Katukhali in Goalanda, approached this time. "Can you find me a job?" the boy in blue jeans and printed shirt asked this correspondent.
He came to Gulistan by a bus from his village home just a couple of hours ago in search of a job and the people there suggested that he go to Kamalapur.
After his mother died of cancer three years ago, his father, a rickshawpuller, stopped his education and forced him to work as a day-labourer.
"As I couldn't earn money in recent days because of floods, my stepmother started torturing me. She tied me to a pole and beat me up last night," the boy broke down in tears.
Mosharraf, the paperboy, could not hold back his tears, when asked what special menu they will have on Eid day.
"We will have to buy the regular menu: rice, vegetables and pulse. We can have chicken if there is a little more money. Who will cook polao or semai for us?"
Abdul Jabbar, 32, who came to Dhaka a week ago in search of a job, is yet to find one.
"My son is waiting… my wife is waiting for me… but I have no way to see them during this Eid," the man from Laribari in Laxmipur said, staring at the passengers boarding a Chittagong-bound train.
Jabbar had to sell his clothes and shoe to buy food for him. "What would I take back home for my family?"