Woman working at field

Besides taking care of household work like washing, cooking, raising children; women also work on the family crop lands.

They spend large part of the day taking care of cattle, poultry,  kitchen gardening.

Women are also hired as daily labourers and spend on an average, more than six hours a day on such work.

One year back

Before the Barobaria river got poisoned by factory waste, last winter Erling is crossing the river through a bamboo bridge in an afternoon walk.

Now the condition of this river water is dark brown, stinks and worse than any one can imagine.

Factory waste contd.

Here, a newly established ready made garment factory in the neighborhood surely brought significant change in peoples life.
Besides, child labor and increased rate of school drop out these kind of unplanned industrialization are creating threat for the ecological balance and causing suffer to the whole community tremendously.

Hooka Khomok hangout

Hooka: A smoking setup with the base of Coconut shell, wooden pipe and clay funnel with tobacco in it.

Khomok: Traditional single- string based tension drum type musical instrument.

On a easy midday hang out Shajahan is playing the Khomok and singing an spiritual song of very popular kind at the local tea shop. Smoking in Hooka is not so widely seen now a days in the coutry side with the availlibility of various grades of cigarettes.

Grass hunt

On the middle of the rice fields

The narrow paths full of grass

On a autumn afternoon in-between play  job for kids

The mission for the food of loving cattles

Accompanied by the bag and a sickle/ kastey under arm.

[Kastey; special kind of new moon shaped knife for cutting grass]

Ramzan ali

Moktob/ Quranic school

Mostly, in every mosque of Bangladesh, the Imam [prayer leader] teaches the young children of the village to read Quran and the methods of saying prayer.

This can be called as a pre-primary education base for the Muslim children. At the very tender age when they are introduced with book and slates. Arabic is the first language they are learning to read and write.

This has been a tradition of free education running for generations.

When the dawn breaks, the children wake up and come to mosque with their Arabic book;  sit together and read loud in rhythmic chorus.

In some areas, the Imam gets small amount of salary from the collective sums by the villagers, while Islamic Foundtion provides support to them in some mosques. In some mosques planned curriculumm are implemented with extra care including Bangla, Mathematics.

Mosques posses a wide spread network in the social structure of Bangladesh, hence could be a effective administrative outlet for reaching out those countryside dwellers who have never reached school.

Rice cakes

Winter is the best season for different varieties of rice cakes.

Plam sugar from sugercane or date juice, coconuts, grinded rice flour, milk, egg in some cases are the key ingredients of traditional rice cakes.

These cakes are identical with their tastes ranging from sweat, hot, liquid, dry, crunchy, boiled.

Different parts of Bangladesh have the proud history and background of rice cakes.

Rice cake, puffed rice or flatten rice are very popular snacks and desert as well.

Fisherman and his fishes

A fish vendor at his shop.

Early in the morning, Koitta market place remains crowdy and busy with the local fisherman.

Fisherman collects and sales fish from own or leased pond,  canals, streams and rivers from the neighbouring area.

jute

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