Stories that Matter

Me and two friends went to Chitwan, Nepal in 2016 and we were exploring rural areas. Found an old, blind man making small crafts with dry corn leaves to earn for himself. He doesnt remember his age but will definitely be an octogenarian. I couldnt know his name too. I bought few products to support him. He made me think 'dignity matters' Life without dignity is nothing...... November 2, 2016. Chitwan, Nepal. I remembered a Bangla story after meeting this amazing man. Brief translation of the story: Dignity and Labour One short story touched my heart. It’s a Bengali short story written by Banaphool titled, ‘Chotolok’. “Chotolok’ means the subaltern working class here in the story. The story is only few pages long and talks about two men : one passerby and a manual rikshaw puller. Raghab is a enlightened man with knowledge of labour exploitation and subaltern studies, believes that manual rikshaw pulling is worst kind of discrimination and labour exploitation h...

My Travel Stories: Heart and Souls. Part II: The lone lady in the market                     I have special respect for people who struggle through unexpected odd events of life and fight for survival and show immense resilience. Their work motivation during troubled times and turmoil of life are definitely encouraging for others.  Story of a female vegetable vendor, Monowara Begum, sitting at road side in Sixmile, Guwahati is something worth inspiring. She is the lone woman vendor in that part of the market and belongs to Muslim community, carrying out her business with all male colleagues around. What brought you to this place?, I asked. She smiled. Probably felt shy to answer me. ‘My husband met a heavy loss in the business ten years back. I took over and running successfully till now’. She smiled again, visibly with no expectation of praise from me.  A lone ...