When millions have gone to ancestral homes, many others have had to stay in Dhaka city despite their common willingness to celebrate Eid with family members.
It’s a matter of both tradition and emotion for most Bangladeshis to go back to the roots of sprawling villages braving all hassles of journey. The Eid holidaymakers, especially low-income groups, have to face immense sufferings including payment of more than double transport fares.
Farida Begum, who works as a domestic help in Dhaka’s West Rampura, is one of the holidaymakers, who left the city even before the lockdown was relaxed for a week between July 15 and 22.
So, there was no bus on the street when she, accompanied by her sister and only child, started. They had to walk and hire a rickshaw to go to Babu Bazar bridge over the Buriginga before they managed to board a microbus with others to reach Mawa ferry terminal to cross the Padma.
“The ferry crossing was the worst-ever experience in my life – there was no breathing space even for innumerable passengers,” Ms Farida made her account while talking to The Financial Express on Monday.
“It took 11 hours and we finally reached home,” she said. She is from Putijuri village in Bhedorganj Upazila of Shariatpur administrative district, less than 60 kilometres off Dhaka city.
Moreover, Ms Farida and two others had to spend Tk 2,000 whereas it normally takes less than Tk 300 per person for such a journey.
The pandemic has slowed down or even halted movement of people.
Risalat Hossain, a university student from Laxmipur, who lives and studies in Dhaka, spent all three previous Eid festivals during the pandemic in the city.
“But how can I stay in Dhaka once again during this Eid? I haven’t visited my mother for long two years!” he said. “The trouble I had during the journey is nothing, compared to how I feel after returning home.”
More than three million people may have left Dhaka city, according to estimates based on mobile phone tracking data.
Mozammel Haque, a businessman and a native to Goalerchar village of Islampur Upazila in Jamalpur, avoided risks of going back home for the fourth consecutive Eid festival and instead brought his parents to Dhaka.
“I couldn’t be courageous enough to go home in view of higher risks in villages this time,” he said adding that since his brothers and sisters are also living in Dhaka, ‘it’s nice to have parents among us”.
Private sector jobholder Jasim Uddin had to skip going back to ancestral home in Satkhira although he would be ‘greatly missing” his family members.
“Both my father and mother are more than 70 years of age and I can’t put them into risk of infection. If we are alive, we can get together during another Eid, may be next year, Insha Allah (God willing),” he said.
Many people could not visit family members and offer qurbani (slaughtering a domestic animal) due to financial constraints under the impact of the pandemic.
Md Salauddin, who was the manager of a popular restaurant in Uttara, hid his original name while talking to this correspondent. “Authorities terminated services of 80 per cent employees including me. I got a job but earn far less. Frankly, I had no capacity to go home to celebrate Eid,” he said.
Many lost their near and dear ones as the Covid-19 claimed more than 18,000 lives and infected 1.1 million Bangladesh people.
Monowara Habib, a government employee, lost her husband and father to Covid-19 in the past one year.
“Every year, my husband, two children and I myself go to father-in-law’s house in Gouripur, Cumilla. But why this time?” she lamented.
“I am trying to celebrate Eid, in a lonely manner, with my two children here in Dhaka,” she said.
Of more than 20 million people believed to have been living in Dhaka and its suburbs, about half the residents leave the city for ancestral homes every year during the Eid. Many left Dhaka this time as well but not all who usually leave dared to visit village homes and not all who have gone do not feel the same festivity as they did during Eid in earlier years.