The ten fishermen of Padma

The stunning sunset at the shores of the majestic Padma river

At the age of 62, Mannaf Bepari, a lanky hard working man from Shajatpur in Pabna, left his village along with ten others including his twelve-year old physically challenged son Shahin.
Their destination was not Dhaka, the unwelcoming capital of the country preferred by thousands of migrants, but the shoals or chars of the river Padma. As soon as the ten men arrived near Bhagyakulon with four small country boats fitted with engines, the group set up a makeshift shed on a deserted shoal called Notun Char (new shoal). Notun Char had just popped out of the river last season, already stretching for miles.  From their base, the group then set out to work- fishing in the river Padma with nets. For the last three months, Mannaf and his friends have been fishing in the river far away from their village and making a living. The migrants are set to continue fishing for another three months.

Mannaf tends to the food for the group, in midst of the majestic Padma river.

Mannaf and Shahinare are given the task of cooking for the entire team three times a day. As the fishermen disperse with their boats just after lunch every day, Mannaf and Shahin do the washing, fetching water and cooking rice together with a fish curry, without a miss. The men ‘trust’ the river and drink and cook with its water without any hesitation whatsoever. “The river feeds our families and many others like us and its water will never make us sick,” Mannaf goes on saying as he lit a fire over a makeshift wood cooker to cook the rice.

The men fish from the afternoon throughout the night and take their catches to the wholesale market in Bhagyakul early morning where many buyers come from the capital, some fifty kilometers away, for fresh river fish. When the men return to their base in the morning they take a dip in the river, have their rice and curry and sleep through the day.
“The river fishes are increasingly becoming scant and our livelihood threatened but whatever we get everyday commands a very high price in the morning market,” Mannaf says.
“Every day each of the boats make around Tk. 2000, sometimes more, depending on the overnight catch and that keeps us going,” Mannaf adds. Whatever each boat earns, the money is kept in a common collective fund. Mannaf says they spend about Tk. 1000 on food, kerosene, fuel wood and bidis ever day and at the end of each week the money is evenly divided.
“By turn, one of the fishermen goes home every week to give the money to their families,” Mannaf says with a broad smile.

Shahin shares a lovely smile with his father on the char.

Of all the work Shahin does each day, he does not have a share to the profits other than the free food for his part, in this seasonal endeavor. Mannaf says he is happy to share his earning with his son.
“When he was born we thought he was dead so the village doctor put him in a bowl of water and he survived. He grew up stunted and unable to communicate with anyone of his age,” Mannaf says.
As Mannaf talked, Shahin listened carefully and smiled, looking at the vast sandy stretch of the char.  A mild breeze blew from the river uninterrupted. In the distance, the river Padma reflected the setting sun in its vast watery sheet.
Report and photographs : Morshed Ali Khan

Short URL: https://reportsbd.com/?p=341

Posted by Reportsbd on Mar 29 2015. Filed under Home Slide, National, Special Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry