No one left to mourn for them

Shah Alam and his wife Piyara Begum were sad when they left Board Bazar for Narsingdi sadar two days before Eid. Just a couple of months back, they had lost their youngest kid to pneumonia and the loss still hung heavy on their minds. Yet, they tried to relieve the pains meeting with their parents, relatives and friends during the Eid holidays.

While returning to Board Bazar in Tongi yesterday, they might not have been as sad. They had two kids -- five-year-old Yasin and seven-year-old Sadia -- on their laps sitting on a CNG-run auto-rickshaw.

They were not the only ones in the small three-wheeler. Shah Alam's sister-in-law Safura Begum and cousins Alamin and Chunnu Mia also rode with them. All might have been in a better mood in their short-trip from Narsingdi sadar to Board Bazar.

But their journey ended abruptly before they could reach their destination. A DEMU train rammed the vehicle while it was crossing at Haidarabad point of Tongi at about 2:30pm, killing the seven and the driver.

Locals said the spot was only one kilometer from Khailpur of Board Bazar where Shah Alam worked as a sewing machine operator at MM Fashion.

“Shah Alam used to share everything with me. On July 16 afternoon, he came to my grocery shop and said he got his salary and was going to Narsingdi. He didn't seem happy,” Yunus Ali, a cousin of Shah Alam, told The Daily Star over the telephone last night.

“I am not happy with my job and salary. I want a better job and pay to rent a better house,” he quoted Shah Alam as saying.

Yusuf said Shah Alam rented a tin shanty. “He was forced to stay in such a shanty to support his four-member family,” said Yusuf who consoled him by saying that the bad times would be over one day.

But his bad times were not about to end. His eight-month old kid died in pneumonia that put a big dent in his wallet. Nothing was going well for him, said Yusuf.

Shah Alam had another sad part in his life. He wanted to send his daughter to school but could not because of poverty. “Even then he was planning to send Sadia to school from next year,” said Yusuf.

Yusuf never thought that the day before Eid would be the last he would ever see Shah Alam. The whole family perished in the accident.

Their deaths, however, left one question hanging -- did they die because of irresponsible driving or for not having a gated level crossing at the point?