She came to Dhaka with her husband 26 years ago. She still hasn't been able to shrug off that Kushtia tone when she talks. Over 50 years old now, Arjena Begum lives in Hemayetpur on the outskirts of the capital city. Her husband Tota Miah works as a security guard in Agargaon of the city.
Arjena sells 'shaak' (spinach) by the road in Manipuripara near the parliament building. There is a little market there every morning, selling vegetables, fruit, chickens, eggs and more. Arjena has been selling 'shaak' there for the past three years. Before that she would sell her ware at Chandrima Udyan.
Arjena commutes from Hemayetpur to Manipuripara every day by bus and now bus fares have gone up along with the hike in fuel prices. So her daily commuting costs have increased. How will Arjena bear these added expenses? She says, "We will have to eat less rice. Before we would buy one and a half kg of rice, now we will have to buy just one kg. If I could sell over Tk 1,520 a day, I could afford to buy some spices. Now I won't be able to."
At the break of dawn Arjena buys 'shaak' from the Hemayetpur bazaar. She buys a few varieties of the leafy vegetable -- lal shaak, palong shaak, data shaak, kolmi, dheki -- whatever she can get. She comes in a bus of a readymade garment factory from Hemayetpur up till Shyamoli. She has to pay Tk 50 since she has her goods with her.
Even today, Monday, she paid that amount, but the bus helper told her that from tomorrow the fare will be Tk 60. That means an extra Tk 10 per day, a full Tk 300 extra per month.
From Shyamoli she takes a rickshaw. It is early in the morning so she can use the main road where rickshaws are generally prohibited. The rickshaw fare is Tk 50. That fare hasn't increased and the rickshaw-puller hasn't said anything about increasing the fare. But Arjena thinks, "When the fares of other transport have gone up, rickshaw fares are surely going to rise too!"
She has other worries. Returning home, every day she walks past the parliament building to the Gabtali road near Mohammedpur and catches the bus there. Before it would take Tk 15 to return to Hemayetpur by bus, now she hears the fare is being hiked to Tk 20. That means Tk 150 per month. Added to the Tk 300, that totals an extra monthly expenditure of Tk 450.
She brings around Tk 1500 to Tk 2000 of her ware to the market every day. After all expenses, she is left with around Tk 250 to Tk 300, that means, Tk 10,000 to Tk 12,000 a month. Having to spend Tk 450 extra from this is a lot for Arjena. She may be illiterate, but Arjena understands, "bus fare has gone up because of the increase in diesel prices. Now the price of everything will go up. This always happens. In our country, if the price of one thing goes up, the price of everything else goes up too. I've seen this before. It's crazy!"
Economists consider fuel to be a "strategic commodity" because if fuel prices go up, so do the prices of all other commodities and services, which leads to inflation. That is why the government controls the fuel business. If necessary, the government provides subsidy to keep prices under control so the people don't face excess pressure.
Arjena may not have been to school ever, but her observations and adjusting to price hikes are quite in keeping with the rules of economy.
She can't cut costs anywhere else. She suffered from a stroke four months ago and so requires medication. Her husband earns Tk 8000 a month. A large part of that is spent on commute, food and medicines.
Arjena and Tota Miah have three daughters, all married. The youngest daughter studied the most, up till Class 7. She lives in Kushtia. They had to borrow Tk 150,000 for her marriage and have to repay that loan every month.
Arjena was talking about all these worries on Monday morning at around 9:45. She said she was concerned about the increased price of fuel, the hike in fares, not about the government's policies and other such lofty issues. In fact, she was reluctant to talk at all in the beginning. But once she started, she expressed the feelings of hurt and defeat. She said, "If fares are increased, we will have to pay that. The government is cleverly hiking fares to make more money. The government isn't going to pay the fares for us. We can do nothing. What else is there to do? "
During coronavirus times when everything was shut down, she had a difficult time coming to sell her 'shaak'. She heard many poor people were given money, but she didn't receive a single paisa. Neither did her husband. Arjena said, "If you don't know the leaders, you don't get anything. I have seen enough in my life to know that."
Finally Arjena was ready to leave. By then a lot had been jotted down in the note book and the correspondent's job was done. Arjena left, ready to prepare for the next day of hard work and struggle all over again.
This was Arjena Begum, who lives and learns to adjust with increasing fares and hardships in life. As she said, "What else is there to do?"