Dhaka teenager and aspiring social media influencer Masud tried to follow in the footsteps of his new idol PSG star Achraf Hakimi by handing his Eidi to his mother Bilkis Banu. But the boy was crestfallen the next day when his mother refused to give it back.
PSG’s Moroccan winger Hakimi has been in the headlines for his ongoing divorce trials with wife Hiba Abouk. Hiba demanded half of her husband’s fortune, which is estimated to be about €70 million, in the settlement.
But the situation completely flipped when it was revealed that Hakimi actually owns nothing as all his possessions are under his mother’s name. Now, his wife Hiba might have to hand over half of her possessions to her ‘penniless’ former husband.
This incident has divided the social media. Majority are praising Hakimi for being smart with his earnings and figuring out a way to bypass the severe divorce settlement law while some are pointing to the fact that the footballer is denying his former wife and two children from his vast fortune.
Masud, a keen member of online groups such as ‘Feminism is cancer’ and ‘Andrew Tate Fan Club Bangladesh’ was very much a part of the former group. Masud was in awe of the Moroccan footballer’s ingenuity.
“I was inspired by him”, said Masud, still sobbing. “I had shared memes about it and tagged everyone girl I knew in them. It was all me and my friends talked about. I actually didn’t even know him before as I don’t really watch football. But what he did made him a hero in my eyes.”
Masud wanted to emulate his new hero Hakimi, who by the way is also facing rape allegations, and he had just the idea in mind.
“I thought I would hand over all my money to my mother for safekeeping, shoot it on camera and upload it on the internet,” said Masud as his eyes started welling up again.
But there was a tiny problem in that plan, “I had no money”.
But that problem was soon to be solved as Eid was coming up. Masud’s shamelessness went into overdrive this Eid as he went to the doorsteps of every relative, no matter how distant, in the city, knocked on the doors of every neighbouring flat and asked, begged and even threatened them for Eidi.
“I even went to the farthest corners of the city, to places like Mirpur and Uttara. I got tanned under the scorching sun. I did anything and everything to collect Eidi. I also opened accounts in BKash, Nagad, Rocket, Upay, Paypal, crypto and even blockchain.”
His attempt to collect funds also extended to the virtual world. He went into all 12 social media platforms he is active on and messaged every person older than him for salami.
“I even asked senior apus for salami on Tinder. No one replied though.”
His efforts paid dividends and by Eid night he had a sizable amount in his hands. Now he proceeded to the next step.
At 12:00am, he held a simultaneous live streams on all of his social media platforms. He told his ‘followers’ that he is inspired by fellow ‘Sigma Chad’ Hakimi and will now handover all of his Eid earnings to his dear mother.
Bilkis, smiling ear to ear, accepted the cash, embraced her son on camera and said he doesn’t need to worry about the money anymore.
“The stream was a success. All my friends loved it and shared it. I even doubled the subscriber count on my Youtube channel (He had one subscriber before, now he has two).”
But his world came crashing down on the following morning.
“After such a hectic Eid day, what I wanted the most was to drink some overpriced coffee with stale fries at an overhyped Banani café with my buddies. But before heading out I realised, I had no cash on me. So I went to my mother and asked for some of my Eidi.”
What happened next, shattered Masud’s world.
His mother first ignored his plea, then gave him the death stare. Masud still didn’t get the hint.
Then his mother finally opened her mouth. Masud couldn’t believe what she said.
‘She said, “What money? I don’t have any money. What! You are saying you gave me your Eidi. What are you talking about? I didn’t take any of your money. What! You don’t believe me! You dare talk back to me! Don’t forget, I’m your mother…”. Then she lectured me about how difficult motherhood is, went into great details about how much pain she endured while carrying me for nine months and how many sacrifices she had to make for me.”
Masud was dumbfounded by this tirade. By the time it ended, he had lost all hope of ever getting his Eidi back, and went back to his room, removed the Hakimi poster from his bedroom wall and threw it in the bin.
We contacted Bilkis, who said she was too busy to speak as she was running late for a spa appointment, a salon appointment and then a dinner with her friends at a swanky restaurant.
She had the time to just make one quick remark, “I don’t know who this Hakimi fella is. But I want to thank him. This has been my best Eid in years.”
We asked Masud if he told his father about what happened.
“I did”, Masud said after blowing his nose on a Hakimi PSG jersey. “He just looked me in the eyes and said, “First time?””.