Friend of fasting people

Kamal has been supplying cold drinking water for the last eight years free of cost to the poor people of his locality, helping them to break their fast with ease during the holy month of Ramadan.

“It makes me happy,” said Masud Al Kamal of Baluadanga (Hathatpara) area in Dinajpur Municipality.

The thirty-five-year-old bakery shop owner told this correspondent that he opened the shop after he lost his job at a private company in the capital in 2008.

The people of the area come to his shop for cold water just before Iftar.

More than 50 families take cold drinking water every day, said Kamal, son of a primary school teacher.

This correspondent recently found the man distributing water to many people with pitchers gathered in front of his shop for cold water just before Iftar.

Kamal said he keeps bottles of different sizes with safe water in his refrigerator in the morning and distributes them during Iftar time.

The noble gesture by Kamal is appreciated by the locals. “I commute daily on this route and have seen him giving water to poor people. We need to encourage him,” said Saheb Ali of the area. 

Many onlookers hailed his innovative idea of quenching the thirst of fasting people. His service to the people really deserves public admiration, many people said. 

“I can quench my thirst in this hot weather due to Kamal's kindness,” said rickshaw-puller Nur Islam. Many poor people would be benefited if people of other areas follow him, he added. 

 “I have been serving cold water to people because many cannot afford to buy bottled water. I feel happy when people come and take drinking water from me. I am not rich, but I try my best to make people happy with what I have,” said Kamal.

“I am lucky that I have a refrigerator for cooling water,” he said.