Farah Haider, 24 February 2010

St. Martin's Island, Bangladesh

When we step forward from the jetty in the Saint Martin Island, we were looking for a luggage carrier. We had a heavy suitcase with us. To my surprise I discovered that 5/6 kids were trying to grab our suitcase. All of them wanted to carry our suitcase from the jetty to a rickshaw van. One of them was so little that my dad decided to pick him. That small kid was hardly 5 years old, very thin and weak. When I asked dad why he had chosen such a tiny kid, he replied: “All other kids are fighting among themselves for carrying the luggage, eventually they will obtain their customer one by one. But this kid is not strong enough to compete with others. I don’t want to encourage this kid for begging by giving him money for nothing.” (more…)

Tahsin Mahmud, 9 December 2009

Kamalapur Railway Station

After pushing my way away from the hustling and bustling crowd I entered the grand gate of the Kamalapur railway station. The terminal was almost abandoned. I placed my travel bags on one of the fixed benches and settled myself right beside it. Why was it empty? Oh well, I was too sluggish to take out my calculator sized mobile phone from my tight jeans pocket. I looked around and searched for the “Big Ben” of Kamalapur. But sigh! I forgot this was Bangladesh! And the Big Ben can only be in London. Anyways, I forced it out and realized that I was one and a half hours early. What do I do then? Oh yeah! Observe the daily life of the street children dwelling in the station. Here are some of my clinical observations which I would love to share with everyone. (more…)

Dhaka at night

Tahsin Mahmud, 2 December 2009

I jumped out from the bus and walked back home. I could not even think of taking a rickshaw on the way as I was running out of cash. I probably had a ten taka note and some two taka notes in my pocket. I desperately needed to go back home as fast as I could as it was already dusk in Dhaka city. Well, it is absolutely unsafe walking down streets when night approaches. And if caught by any robbers or street gang, I could be even tortured and embarrassed for just having two taka notes… I fast-walked towards a dark alley, when suddenly someone poked me from the back. Initially I was staggered and my first thought was to run away from the world! But I was brave enough to look back to see a small girl staring at me. (more…)