Fragility....mapfotoagency.com

Fragility – when I encounter this English word, bhongur, the Bangla meaning does not ring in my head. I hear the impact of a fallen glass on the cement, the fragments littered all over. Next comes the fear of trading over the broken pieces and getting injured.

It is believed that we live in a fragile world, more precisely, in a fragile-most country on the globe. For us, it is not that hopeless situation. Living is always promising, encouraging and the urge to carry on with our life has many incentives.

Funereal on the bank of the Sangu River

The untimely death of Nu Cho Shing, a Marma boy “was walking to his parents in the tobacco patch on the river bank. He walked a bit and came back complaining that he was feeling uneasy and collapsed. We rushed to Thanchi bazar to the medicine shop. He was given two injections also. After a while, the dactor (village quack)' announced him dead."

"Death comes like that; we haven't seen such death for a long time. It must be the  nait  (spirit) of the headman who was killed upstream three years back and still roams over the water and kills whenever he has a chance. His family didn't arrange for the puja that was required and the departed soul became a angry spirit."

Since the child died outside the para (village), he was not to be taken to his house. A temporary shade was erected on the riverbank, not far from where he collapsed, and relatives and neighbours gathered there performing rituals and seeing him for the last time. He was one of best students in the village school. “It is the first school ever for us.”

Yangrisi Para, Thanchi, Bandarban 2011.

The betel nut collector; Kurigram 2012

New water in the Kakra River; Khanshama, Dinajpur 2012.

Mahananda River; Chapai Nababganj, 2012.

 Chapai Nababganj, 2012

 Syedpur, 2012

 Honey collector on the edge of the Sundarban; Shyamnagar 2012.

 Perched land; Satkhira 2012.

 Trapped birds on the glued stick; Thanchi, 2012.

Parabat 7, Barisal bound launch was stranded on the Kirtankhola River, one hour away from the main launch terminal.
A laskar/khalashi is hammering the wooden pin on the soft sandy bank. We are waiting for the fog to disappear.
Jan 2012.

 Kuakata fishermen; Patuakhali 2012.

Khumi village; Thanchi 2012.

 Poultry vendor; Tejgaon, Dhaka 2012.

Homeless, they sleep on rickshaw van. At dawn, the noise of the rushing train startled him while he slept through the night and was oblivious to another half a dozen roared past.

Nothing like being alive for another day!

Tejgaon, Dhaka, 2011.

Vegetable traders after a long night at the wholesale market; Meherpur 2012.

Worker in a beaten rice  factory; Meherpur 2012.

 Prayer for rain

There is no rain for months.

The boys dug a hole on the perched land, put water in it, made the soil muddy  and roll over begging for rain - Allah, megh de, pani de, chaya de re tui Allah; ashman hoilo tuta tuta, jomin hoilo fata).

 “There was a man in our village who used to tie his feet to the branch of a tree and hanged upside down for days; it was through his suffering that he begged for rain.”

Meherpur, May 2012

 Bobbibir Than, the final resting place
Debhata, Satkhira; June 2012

The boy fell from a leechi tree and since, he is in a coma. The poor parents tried local doctors and city hospitals. ‘Doctors in Dhaka gave us no hope; we were there for a month; they said, nothing could be done; take him home; it can be days or months before he could be conscious.’
The parents brought him home in a bus reserving three seats in a row. They couldn’t afford an ambulance: ‘would cost us 20,000 taka!’
‘We didn’t put him in his bed; instead, as the final hope, placed him in the Bonbibir than. So many miracles happened here!’
As for me, while I was there to see the magnificent old banyan tree under which the sacred place of the deity of the Sundarban was established many decades ago, I saw the mother laying beside her dying child and thought, a perfect shot!
Are photographers heartless, looking for a soft moment, someone falling apart?
The parents were telling the onlookers, the relatives about the cruelty of the ward boys and the nurses: they wouldn’t touch the boy without a bakshish, a minimum 50 taka.
‘If my son survives, it will be the blessing of the Bonbibi! She is not the deity of the Muslims or the Hindus!’
Faith is beyond reasoning. One clings to the last straw, a make-belief world. There comes a pagol young man: ‘tell everyone, no one should make the branches a resting place, a bed for relaxation; no one should try to kill the tokkhoks and the snake residing at the base. They are not what it seems!’
The crowd, the believers, thinking of the welfare of the sick child, ordered the few youths listening to music with their cell phones, to climb down from the branches.
Debhata, june 2012

 Just married. Let us pray that he or his family will not put pressure on her to bring more dowry money from her parents. Debhata 2012.

Will there be any tree on the ground in Dhaka after 50 years? It is the fastest growing city on earth.
Tejturi Bazar, Dhaka 2012

Everything comes to an end! Nature takes over once more.
Shyamnagar, 2012.

Horse race on the dried shrimp ponds. Village entertainment like this is rare these days. Shyamnagar 2012.

Iron smith; Kawran Bazar, Dhaka 2012.

Aluminium  factory; Dhaka 2012.

Making of a new stadium; Mirpur, Dhaka 2012.

A hot summer day; Dhamrai, 2012.

Eid day; Dhaka 2011.

Tongi, 2011.