Mohishadanga thanks Soumya

Mohishadanga is a village under the backward upazila of Ashashuni. So deprived is this that its inhabitants do not have access to electricity. Luckily for them, this is the village home of Soumya Sarkar. And it's because of one of Bangladesh's cricketing heroes that those dark days are going to be gone.

While Soumya was lighting up the whole country with his breathtaking batting in the field of play, people in his very own village turned to generators to see their favourite son tormenting mighty opponents like Pakistan and India. But now all that will change.

General manager of Satkhira Palli Bidyut Samity Rabindra Das said, "Soumya Sarkar is a player of the national cricket team. It is in his honour that we created a project to bring electricity to his village."

The rural electrification department came here on Friday for a survey. In the first phase, just over a two-kilometre electricity line will be established and that will light up 168 houses out of a total of 318 in the village.

College teacher Hiralal Biswas, heaving a huge sigh of relief, said, "Our surrounding villages have electricity, but ours don't. Now thanks to Soumya, we are going to see light!"

Soumya's father Kishorimohan Sarkar, education officer of Narail district, said, "There is still a sense of unfulfilment. If all the houses in the village had electricity, everyone could have seen and enjoyed the Tigers' play together."

Meanwhile, Soumya came to his hometown of Satkhira on Thursday night to meet his parents. The next day, he took his grandmother and uncle and aunt to Mohishadanga to see his other family members and friends. He returned to Satkhira later in the day to spend the entire Saturday with his parents, before heading back to Dhaka on Sunday to resume his regular routine.

Soumya's fame has brought many good memories for the country and now his family and friends wish they could watch him regularly on television without generators.