Md Aminul Islam

Long queues of cars, buses, rickshaws and motorbikes -- an inseparable image associated mostly with life in metros -- like Dhaka and Chattogram. However, traffic jam, these days, has become a regular phenomenon in the somewhat small divisional city of Mymensingh as well.

Some 200 families of Bade Majhira village in  Muktagacha upazila of Mymensingh have been making a living by making fishing rods. This has been an ancestral profession of these families for around a century.

For around four months a year -- from June to September -- thousands of residents of Balashpur Madhyapara area in Mymensingh city have to sit through debilitating waterlogging.

For the past two years, Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Bengali Hindu community, had lost its colours to the pandemic.

Before the pandemic hit, a group of women with disabilities were living a respectable life, working for a handloom workshop in Mymensingh’s Kanchijuly area.

“No vacant beds available for Covid-19 patients at ICU and Covid wards” -- reads the sign hanging in front of Mymensingh Medical College Hospital’s (MMCH) emergency department.

Menazul Islam, a seasonal rawhide trader from Matikata Mor area of ​​Chilmari upazila in Kurigram, is in dire straits after taking a Tk 2 lakh loan for his business in hopes of turning a profit.

The pandemic situation is dire in Mymensingh Even after Mymensingh Medical College Hospital increased the number of beds in its Covid-19 unit from 210 to 500, the hospital’s 20-bed ICU  remains at capacity due to the onrush of critical patients.

Three young boys in their teen years, one standing, ready to throw a grenade, two others kneeling down, their rifles pointed afar; the photograph drips with their grit and intent, and it has become a symbol of the Liberation War.

Hundreds of families in Netrakona haor areas have been drying fishes in traditional way and there is a bright prospect of this produce if this business is supported and properly monitored by the government, said the fishermen.

Minara Begum died on Monday night. At 60 years old, she could no longer withstand the continuing suffering caused to her by a slew of old-age complications, including a deadly heart disease.

Bumper production of Boro paddy has brought smiles on the faces of farmers in the haor region of Netrakona and Kishoreganj.

Fisheries experts of Bangladesh Agricultural University have suggested introduction of “biological control of mosquito” by releasing small fishes of local species into the breeding sites.

The nor’wester and accompanying heat wave that swept over the country on Sunday massively damaged Boro paddy in both plain and haor areas of at least seven districts in northeast and southern divisions, dampening hope for increased production of rice and decline in prices to ease pressure on low income people’s budget.

When parents and teachers alike bemoan that children and young students know little about the Liberation War, one freedom fighter has taken it upon himself to be a roving educator on the battles of 1971.

The aquaculture industry in Mymensingh is starting to bounce back from the coronavirus fallout as cross-country transportation facilities have returned to normal.

Hundreds of baul artistes in Mymensingh region are in distressed state as they are passing their days with almost no contract since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

A road has been built right through the Ubdakhali river, in Netrakona’s Kalmakanda upazila, by the owners of a brick kiln.

A carpenter in Melandah upazila of Jamalpur have showed his intimate love for Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, making a chair setting the portrait of the Father of the Nation.

Ahad from Jamalpur lost his father before his birth and mother during delivery. When none was found to take care of the seven-year-old, another couple came forward to adopt him.