Interview
‘My son played archery on this ground and I sold tea’
Selina Khatun raised and educated her four children by running a tea stall since her husband died 15 years ago. Her younger son archer Sagar Islam will participate in the Olympic Games in Paris on 26 June, but she risks her tea stall of being removed, despite such an achievement of her son. Prothom Alo’s Abul Kalam Muhammad Azad took her interview.
There was a reception for your son in Dhaka on 27 June. Did you attend it?
Selina Khatun: Yes. I went to the reception.
How was your experience?
Selina Khatun: Everyone introduced me as Sagor’s mother. I placed the medal around my son’s neck. They took our pictures and videos. It was very nice. Those who had seen my lifelong sorrow could not see this happiness. My parents are not alive. Sagor’s father is not alive either. Had they been alive today, they would have been so happy. (She said while wiping her tears.)
How did Sagor’s father die?
Selina Khatun: He died of illness.
What happened then?
Selina Khatun: I open the tea stall.
How did you start?
Selina Khatun: I brought a few things and opened the tea stall at the Bangabandhu College intersection (in the Mahananda residential area of Rajshahi city). I had no alternative at the time.
Had people taken it positively?
Selina Khatun: No at all, nobody took it positively that a woman would run a tea stall at an intersection. Many people even tried to remove my stall.
What did you do then?
Selina Khatun: I did not quit. Rather, I and my children ran the stall from 5:00 am to 11:00 pm.
What happened after that?
Selina Khatun: They quit at one point.
Is there any other source of income except the tea stall?
Selina Khatun: No. House rent including electricity bill is Tk 5,000. We are a family of five and it is very difficult to run the family.
You have four children.
Selina Khatun: I have two sons and two daughters. The elder son and the younger daughter are studying for their graduation while the younger son studies in BKSP (Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan). Both daughters are married; the elder one stays in the in-law’s house while the younger one lives with me. My elder son is also married.
Your stall is on a plot of the Rajshahi Development Authority (RDA).
Selina Khatun: Yes. It is in a corner of an empty plot.
Who came to evict you?
Selina Khatun: It was the RDA people. I saw the person who talked about eviction on an RDA vehicle once.
If you are rehabilitated somewhere, will you not go?
Selina Khatun: (Crying) I laid my son Sagor on this bamboo bench. My son played archery on this ground (RDA plot) and I sold tea. I do not want to leave this place. Everyone is familiar here. There are also customers. If I can stay here, I will survive.
A new structure will be erected on the RDA plot at one point in future.
Selina Khatun: It is not happening now. The plot remains empty. If I run my tea stall on a corner what sort of harm it can do?
Who else has contributed to your son going to the Olympics?
Selina Khatun: The president of SB Archery Club, Saifuddin did a lot for my son. BKSP reduced the tuition fee for my son by adjusting to my income. I am grateful to the Bangladesh Archery Federation. City Group also gave my son Tk 500,000. I am grateful to everyone.
This interview appeared in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Hasanul Banna