A Little Update on Siddique the Fisherman...

The other day my friend Situ ran into Siddique the fisherman in the village, and he said to him, ‘your name is going to be in the newspaper’, thinking about my last article which hopefully will be published in print in the next week or so.

Siddique was shocked. ‘What? What for?’ he said, immediately concerned. Hatiyan people are quite shy of such things, I suppose because too often when the poor attract attention it is for a bad reason, such as a court case, often false, or a police something-or-other which also may or may not be of substance. They usually prefer to live under the radar a bit, without attention. ‘What did I do? What happened?’ asked Siddique. ‘Quick, give tea,’ he said, hoping to smooth things over with Situ, assuming there was something that needed smoothing over.

Situ was a bit bad, because he had tea with Siddique and still didn’t tell him why his name may be in the newspaper! ‘You should think it over,’ Situ told him, ‘why your name will be there, and we can talk about it another time.’ Such is the village life! The unfortunate Siddique is still wondering and will, until the thing is published, and we take him a copy. Meanwhile Situ is in Dhaka and we have no mobile number to reach him, so we can’t tell him sooner.

When they know the actual situation, all the tea shop regulars (at that shop) will laugh themselves silly shop about his needless worrying, why his name would be published; he will grin from ear to ear and be a bit proud and happy that his name is there, and all in the immediate vicinity will remember ‘Siddique’s article adventure’ for just about ever. That's how Hatiya goes… how Hatiyan community history is born.



Did you miss the start of this story?

Or perhaps you'd like to know what happens when the villager comes to the city.  Alternatively, head for similar rice paddy scenery in Thailand or the Philippines.



Bangladesh Dreaming: Article Index for articles about Bangladesh