Out in the cold, again
Three friends came out of a Rajshahi University (RU) dormitory and went to a nearby railway station to have tea around 12:30am yesterday.
Moments later, they heard someone crying in pain. When they looked around, they saw something inside the passenger's waiting room that gave them goose bumps.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. A woman was groaning on a filthy jute sack on the dirty floor. Next to her, a newborn baby boy was lying on a dirty rag. There was blood everywhere and the umbilical cord had not been cut yet.
“At first, we could not decide what to do. But a woman who lives at the station came to our rescue,” said Rafiqul Islam, one of the three youths, who is doing his master's in mass communication and journalism at RU.
The woman, whose identity could not be known, cut the navel string with a blade and told the youths to take the mother and the baby to a hospital immediately.
Later, the youths called in the university ambulance and rushed them to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
The mother, who had excessive bleeding, was admitted to a hospital ward. “She was given two bags of blood and released after her condition improved,” a doctor told this correspondent.
On their release, the mother and the baby were taken back to the Rajshahi University Railway Station in the afternoon.
Later, locals, including the three youths, cleaned an abandoned waiting room at the station and placed a thick polythene sheet on the floor.
They also gave the mother and the baby pillows, towels and a mosquito net, and told them they could stay there.
Besides, the three friends collected some money and gave that to the mother.
The two other youths are Nazmus Sakib, a master's student of economics at RU, and Shahinuzzaman, who studies fine arts at Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University in Mymensingh. Rafiqul and Sakib live at Suhrawardi Hall on the campus, and Shahinuzzaman visits them occasionally.
“What else could we do?” said Sakib. “We did our best to help them.”
He said the woman was speech-impaired and that was why they could not find out who she was.
Rafiqul said, “We are worried about the child's safety. It would be a great help if someone came forward and took his responsibility.”
The three friends also gave the baby a name -- Swapno (dream).
Ziaur Rahman, a local, said he heard that many women gave birth to children and raised them at the station.
“This child would grow up just like the others,” he said.