Campus friends combat cold

When he was a student at Dhaka City College, Salman Mahi Ruhul Kawsar never faced the severe cold which he now faces in North Bengal.

An intern at Dinajpur Medical College, Salman shared his experience when attending classes in winter there. “It was quite an elaborate preparation. I wore a T-shirt first and then a shirt over it. On that I would put on a short-sleeved sweater and then a jacket. Finally I would wear my medical apron over it all. I had to combat the cold!”

Salman was sharing this experience at a time when a 68-year record of lowest temperature was broken according to the met office. On 8 January the lowest temperature at Dhaka was recorded as 9.5 degrees Celsius while at Tetulia it was 2.6 degrees and 3.2 degrees in Dinajpur.

So those struggling to attend the early hour classes in Dhaka can comfort themselves with the thought of the plummeting temperature of students in Rangpur, Dinajpur and Syedpur in North Bengal.

Nasim Ahmed, a student of the chemistry department at Haji Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU) in Dinajpur, said with a smile, “The temperature is decreasing to a point lower than my CGPA!”

But the students make the best of the winter weather. Ishrat Jahan from Rangpur Medical College says, “We regularly gather around for delicious bhapa pitha (a local rice cake) and hot tea at the tea stalls.

Winter pastime for Raqib Hasan from HSTU is the badminton tournaments on campus.

During the severe cold, these students from the local colleges and universities are the first ones to come forward with aid for the locals in North Bengal.

Among them, Mahfuzul Islam, a student of the public administration department at Begum Rokeya University at Rangpur, said, “We distribute warm clothes every year. We raise funds from different points of the city and later distribute clothes at remote areas.”

Md. Ashiqur Rahman of HSTU Bandhusava said, “We’ve nearly completed the collection. We’ll be distributing 200 blankets at the nearby areas on 15 January.”

The medical college students from the North Bengal areas take more responsibilities than distributing cloths, as the number of burn injury patients’ in the hospitals rise every winter. They said, they come forward with campaigns to alert the locals to be cautious while they warm up around a fire.

*This piece, originally published in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English, by Nusrat Nowrin