“While returning from school my daughter said, she wanted to take a rickshaw home. I told her we had no money. My son said he wanted a banana. I brought him home, saying I would buy one later. I felt heartbroken. I asked, Allah, why are you making us suffer so much?”
On 25 June 2014, Fahmida Jannat (Happy) of Sylhet recorded this bitter experience from her life in her diary. Twelve years later, on 26 June 2026, Fahmida wrote on her Facebook status, “Every hardship, every busy moment and every small success teaches me to become stronger. Love your work. In Shaa Allah, success will knock on your door one day.”
Success has also knocked on Fahmida’s door. She is now financially independent. She says, “I managed to survive because I was patient, honest and hardworking. Otherwise, I would have been swept away like a piece of straw long ago!”
Lubana Yesmin, president of the Sylhet Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Fahmida’s life story “surpasses even a movie”. She told Prothom Alo that Fahmida’s husband suddenly left her, leaving her with their two children.
After years of relentless hard work and dedication, she eventually succeeded in life. The eventful tale of this successful woman entrepreneur now inspires others.
The life she left behind
Fahmida rents the second floor of a house in Mirabazar in Sylhet city. She spoke to this reporter at the house on the evening of 9 June. During the conversation, Fahmida brought out several diaries and showed them to the correspondent. Page after page of these diaries contains her account of the life she left behind.
According to Fahmida, her family home is in Beanibazar, Sylhet. In 2007, her family arranged her marriage to a bank official from Dargah Gate in Sylhet city. She had only recently completed her Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination at the time. She spent the first two and a half years of her marriage relatively happily. Suddenly, her in-laws began treating her badly. At one point, her husband also began behaving badly towards her.
How happiness came into her life
Fahmida says, “I knew how to sew and do block printing and batik work. I put those skills to use in 2017. I would take my daughter to school and bring various sewing orders from other parents home, completing the work there. That is how I started earning. Later, with financial support from my siblings, I started a clothing business, sewing all sorts of garments.”
At the time, her in-laws taunted her with various remarks, including calling her “shelai apa”. Unable to discourage her, her in-laws took other measures. Alongside threats and pressure to leave home, they disconnected her water supply and gas connection and frequently harassed and intimidated her by sending groups of people to her home at night, posing as her husband’s “creditors”.
Police also regularly came to the house after allegations of a “cheque forgery case” were brought against her husband. This frightened the children. Living constantly in fear and anxiety, both her daughter and son began to develop mental health problems. Fahmida herself suffered a stroke in 2019. She later rented a house in Mirabazar in the city in 2021 and began a new life.
After moving into the rented house, Fahmida launched an online page and YouTube channel called “Happy’s Kitchen”. She began supplying a variety of healthy and tasty homemade food. Her reputation grew steadily because of the quality of her food, and she now regularly supplies food to various organisations and events.
For about two years after she began supplying food through her online page, Fahmida prepared and delivered cooked meals every day to a popular online-based food and grocery delivery company for a monthly payment of Tk 10,000. She left the job after her own online page became popular. Her business is now well known.
Prosperity and happiness
In 2024, Fahmida received an award plaque from the Entrepreneur and E-Commerce Platform. Her children are also doing well in their studies. Her daughter passed this year’s secondary examination with an ‘A’ grade, while her son is studying in Class Eight.
Fahmida has hired an assistant for “Happy’s Kitchen” at a monthly salary of Tk 3,000. Five temporary delivery workers also work for the business. Her current income allows her to cover rent, household expenses, her children’s education and other needs, while leaving her with more than Tk 5,000 each month.
Fahmida now fills her diary with accounts of happiness and stories of joy. She has only one thing to say: “I do not want to look back anymore. My only goal now is to keep moving forward.”