Two Fishermen

A Real Story

The mighty river Karnafuli, fed by rainfall in the Mizo Hills, flows down through northeastern India and Bangladesh and mingles with Bay of Bengal. In summer, when it rains heavily in the hills, Karnafuli puts on an amazonian attire with ferocious strong current. It drags large broken trees and dead animals and capsizes boats dumping them into the bay. The bay also gets very billowy and rough. The river, however, is also a boon to Bangladesh for business. Foreign merchants routinely conduct business with Bangladesh and neighboring India, Nepal, Bhutan, and others using the river.

The city of Chattogram (previously Chittagong) is the main seaport of Bangladesh overlooking the confluence of the river and the bay.

On the bank of Karnafuli, there is a tight-knit community known as Jele Para, which literally means Fishermen Community. As the name implies, the primary livelihood of the residents is fishing. Fishermen catch fish in the morning and sell them in fish markets in the afternoon. Men and women from the community flock in the markets to buy varieties of fish, namely ilish (hilsha) and snapper, which are among the most popular and palatable.

Mahendra Bahadur is a self-made wealthy man who made his fortune by large-scale wholesale export of fish throughout the world. He built his palatial house atop a hill in Chattogram, not far from Jele Para. He was a generous man revered by the residents of Jele Para, and was popuparly referred to as Big Uncle. He always looked after the welfare of his people as they are basicaslly poor depending on the fishing business.

Fishermen’s wives also participate in the fish business. They separate the catch into two halves – one half as fresh and the other for making dry fish, which is a delicacy for Bangladesi Bengaslees across the world. The drying process takes advantage of sunshine. Weather is between hot and mild throughout the year. In a sand bed in their courtyard they cover fresh fish with sand and leave them for a week.

Young boys also help their parents in the fishing business. Benod and Karim, two residents of Jele Para, are close friends since their early childhood. When young, they used to accompany their fathers to the bay for fishing. The fathers cannot afford to buy a fishing boat each; so two fathers share one boat. When grown-up, the boys inherit their fathers’ boat.

As adults, Benod and Karim used to sail to the bay routinely. Their families used to worry for their safety on the days of heavy rainfall in summer. Boat capsizing is not an uncommon event and there are always helps around to de-capsize boats.

On some days, when the weather is polite and calm, the whole family accompanies them, like a family outing, and sails on Karnafuli. The whole family hardly ventures into the bay; they limit themselves within the river.

Once on a bad summer day, the weather was gloomy and calm. Sometimes calmness could be a sign of an impending storm. Benod and Karin took a chance to venture into the bay. But gradually the weather turned bad to worse with first strong wind followed by torrential rain. Benod and Karim knew this weather pattern very well. But their youthful spirit propelled them into the bay. Because of the unfriendly weather, there were very few boats in the bay.

As they sailed for a while, both wind and rain gained strength and became furious making the bay billowy with strong current. Water in Karnafuli swelled because of high tide and pshed the boat away from the bay further and further inland beyond their control. After a while the boat was caught into a large chunk of algae by the shore of Karnafuli. It was getting dark and the men did not know their location. Being very tired and disoriented, they decided to take rest. In no time, they fell asleep.

Late morning the next day, not knowing where they were, they started walking hungry and thirsty. Even after walking for an hour, there was no sign of any neighborhood, but they saw a small pond whose water was not very clean. They drank a good amount of water anyway to quench their thirst. After walking for another few hours, they realized they were not too far from their neighhood, Jele Para. Overjoyed but exhausted, they made to their residences with great difficulty.

The following morning, the two men started feeling uneasy. The uneasiness gradually turned bad to worse. Mahendra Bahadur summoned the two best doctors from in and out of Jele Para. The doctors and the two men’s wives stayed on day and night to monitor the two men’s conditions. The doctors diagnosed severe cholera and treated them as best as they could. By mid-day, the doctors not noticing any improvement gave up their hope and left the two men in the hands of nature.

It did not take long for the bad news to spread. Men, women, and children rushed to see the two men. Tears started rolling down their cheeks.

In the late afternoon, within a span of two hours between them, the two fishermen began their final journey to eternity.

******************