A man is sleeping here
It was 2:00am in Dhaka. The bone-chilling winter breeze was blowing ferociously. The roads were quiet. A few trucks occasionally sped through the capital's deserted streets. This reporter noticed a man trembling inside a plastic bag, trying his best to seek refuge from the cold amidst the eerie atmosphere, near Panthapath intersection.
"All I have is a mat, a thin blanket, and a plastic bag. I'm still having trouble falling asleep. This is no way to live," he said.
Nearby, 6-year-old Tara was sleeping with her mother. They sell flowers during the day.
At night, they sleep on the footpaths with the help of two thin blankets.
"Why are you still awake?" the reporter asked Tara. "How can I sleep in this cold?" she promptly replied. When asked about her father, she simply said, "He's dead." No emotions were present on her face.
Her mother Masuda added, "We make an average of Tk 200 per day." She and Tara recently moved to Dhaka from Barishal, leaving two of her children behind.
"We send a portion of the money home. We hardly manage three square meals a day with the remainder," she added.
This correspondent talked with 10 people from different places of the capital on Thursday night, from 12:00am to 2:30am. They all had similar stories to tell.
Shuvo, a 16-year-old, was curled up on the footpath near Karwan Bazar. He has been staying there for three years. After his father remarried following his mother's death, he fled his Manikganj home and came to Dhaka.
Shuvo was shivering while talking. He just had a plastic bag as his bed, while he used his shoes as a pillow. He wrapped himself up with a lungi, in absence of a blanket.
"Last year, I got a blanket as a donation. That was stolen. I have nothing to shield myself from the cold right now," he said. "I barely get anything to eat. Sometimes, passers-by help me out by giving me some money. Occasionally, I collect plastics and sell them."
"Today, I couldn't manage any food. I'm starving and shivering," he added.
Mohammad Mohsin, 40, has been living on the streets for about 14 years. His story is a little different. When he was a schoolboy in Jamalpur, he fell in love with a girl. Her name is still written on his hand.
At the age of 14, Mohsin and his high-school sweetheart ran away to Dhaka. He then started working as a garment worker. However, the girl eventually returned to her family and married elsewhere.
Depressed, Mohsin barely attended his workplace and was eventually fired. That's how he ended up in the streets.
After moving to and from various footpaths, he is now staying on one at Karwan Bazar. The man doesn't have a blanket or warm clothes of his own.
Jahid Hasan, who works as a staff at a tea stall, has shared one of his winter outfits and a blanket with Mohsin. He himself has been staying on the footpath following his mother's death in 2014.
Such are the stories of the footpaths...
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