We read many biographies of celebrities, popular writers. Do we read biography of a sufferer, working class people? Do we know how miserable their life is? Today I tell you about a village woman who fight throughout her life to survive for a day.
Few years back I visited my uncle’s house at Sirajgonj for attending a marriage ceremony of my cousin. One day I was gossiping with my cousins. Suddenly I heard a noise making by some children. They shouted and said, “পাগলী আসছে, পাগলী আসছে.” I saw a middle-aged woman who is about 45-50 years old. Children ran after her and irritated her by continuously shouting. My aunt came out from her house and let that lady in. I asked her, “Who is that lady?” Aunt replied, “ ওর নাম বিলাসী, ও বাড়িতে বাড়িতে ঠিকা ঝিয়ের কাজ করে। ” I asked her, “why the children irritate her?” Aunty said, “ওর মাথায় সমস্যা আছে।” I wanted to know the story of Bilasi. From my cousins I came to know that Bilasi is very poor. Her father left her mom when she was a child. She has 2 sisters: Aysa and Rokeye. Since childhood she along with her mom and sisters fight everyday to earn money, manage food. As, in village there is no permanent job, they have no fixed source to income. So, most of the days they have to starve. Her elder sister became mad for extreme poverty. She also has some symptoms of madness. Poverty doesn’t let her to make a beautiful family with full of children. I felt pity for her. Clear sign of extreme poverty played on her face. Through her eyes maybe I could see the pain of poverty, hatred to life, uncertainty.
I wanted to take a photo of her. She became so astonish when I said her to look at camera. Maybe she never saw a camera or she couldn’t think that someone wanted to take a photo of her. She worked hard that day. I felt vivid respect for this working lady for surviving each day in this cruel world.