I feel very bad at the end of Ramadan! People go shopping at this time.
I also go sometimes. I visit cloth shops. Sometimes I see a couple of clothes.
I run my hand over the cloth. What a soft cloth. The color is also good. My mother liked it very much.
The shopkeeper tells me the quality of the cloth. It is a very good yarn. It will be very comfortable to wear.
I sit holding the cloth for a long time. In the end, the cloth is not bought! Tears gather in the corners of my eyes. I get up. The shopkeeper must have understood something.
He says from behind, “Brother, take the cloth. I will give it to you at the price you bought it for.”
I keep walking. I never look back. I put my hand in my pocket. My wallet is full. Many 1,000 taka notes.
Apart from cash, I have three cards with me. With which I can buy goods worth several lakhs of taka.
We lived in a tin-slat house in Jatrabari at that time. My father works as a clerk in a government office. The salary is very small. On top of that, we also had to send money to the village.
When Eid came, my father would buy me new clothes. He couldn’t always buy clothes for my mother on Eid!
Once, at the end of Ramadan, my father took us out. We were just me and my mother.
My mother doesn’t go out much. That day, she went out at my father’s request. I really wanted to go after seeing a big shopping mall. I told my mother. My mother convinced my father to tell her.
We started looking around the shopping mall. When I entered a shop, my mother looked at the clothes. She looked at several clothes. My mother thought she liked the clothes. My mother didn’t say anything. My mother knows that my father can’t afford to buy these clothes!
We left the shop. The shopkeeper called from behind. My father said, “The clothes are good! What do you mean you didn’t buy them?”
My mother said, “No, the clothes aren’t very good! How do I know the color!”
The shopkeeper kept calling us and we didn’t go back.
I didn’t understand then! Now I understand that my mother really liked the clothes.
I entered the Punjabi shop. I saw an old man’s Punjabi. I really like a Punjabi! I want to buy it!
The Punjabi will suit my father very much. My father has never worn such a Punjabi!
My father struggled to cover my education and family expenses with my father’s low-paying job. How could he buy such an expensive Punjabi?
I got admitted to Dhaka University with very good results in college. How happy my father was! After hearing the results of my admission test, my father bought ten kilograms of sweets! He brought me home with paan. He fed me sweets and informed me about my admission test results.
My father used to dream so much about me. My father passed away the year after I got admitted to the university!
I had only finished two classes after coming to the university. It would take time for the next class. There were a couple of hours between classes. I was sitting in the field. At that time, my mother called me. He cried and cried, “Come home quickly.” Mother could not say anything else. She started crying loudly!
My heart was pounding inside me! My vision started to blur. I quickly came home. My friend Sohel came with me, understanding my situation.
When I returned home, I saw my father covered in a white cloth! Mother stared at me with a frown!
After my father left, I somehow continued my studies with my father’s office pension money. Along with a couple of tuition fees.
After completing my studies, I didn’t want to work. I saw my father. Job money doesn’t do anything.
I started the business with some of my father’s pension money and some of my mother’s jewelry money. Mother was also not in favor of a job. I was happy to start a business.
After running around a lot, I managed to get the business up and running. Next year, in the middle of Ramadan, my mother went to her father!
I don’t buy Punjabi. I left the shopping mall. The manager called. You can’t talk inside the shop.
I came outside and received the call.
“Say, Raees.” My manager’s name is Raees. He’s about twenty-five or twenty-six years old. He’s a very hardworking guy.
“Sir, I’ve done the math. According to the Islamic Foundation’s calculations, our zakat this year is five hundred and thirty thousand taka.”
I don’t buy clothes for zakat. Every year I give the zakat money to a family. Let a family stand up every year.
You don’t go from shop to shop to shop to buy clothes in a shop like mine, for lack of people of your own!
