Flags for Sale!

Photos: Prabir Das

25-year-old Rafiqul Islam has come to Dhaka for the first time to visit his friends at Mohammadpur. After spending a week's holiday in Dhaka, he decided to go back to his village Dattapara, Shibchar upazilla of Madaripur district. But his friend requested him to stay back for few more days, as they had a plan to go to the village together after Victory Day — i.e December 16. 

Rafiqul on the other hand wanted to leave as soon as possible as he was running out of money. “When I shared my crisis with my friends, they came up with this lucrative way of earning money-- selling flags!” exclaims Rafiqul Islam, the seasonal flag seller at Zia Uddyan area. “At first I could not understand what to do as I am new in the city and am not familiar with the roads and lanes properly,” he states.

However, Rafiqul's friends took him to Chawkbazaar and bought him some flags within 1000 takas. They reached the Zia Uddyan area and started out slow. “It was very interesting! says Rafiqul. "So many people bought the flags. All I had to do was stand there with the flags and did not move an inch!"

Currently, Rafiqul has a varied collection of flags—stickers, head bands, flags hooked to sticks, and large flags. Apart from this, he has a very interesting sketch book for the children, having inspiring features related to our liberation war. Depending on the sizes, Rafiqul sells flags starting from 10 takas to 500 takas, and the book at 50 takas.

Like Rafiqul, there are a large number of seasonal flag sellers in our city, who sell flags to the people in the month of December, in most cases, from the first day of December till the 16th December.  However, it is a temporary form of business, since flags are not bought as much in the other months, as they are in December or few national holidays.

“I love these flag sellers, even today, who are upholding our victory knowingly or unknowingly to people of all social classes,” says 65-year-old Ajit Ranjan Acharya, a freedom fighter. “I feel very proud when I see parents buying flags for their children,” he adds. “I feel nostalgic; it is the flag that we fought for bravely; it symbolises out freedom. Not only does the flag symbolise pride but also our identity—representing our very own Bangladesh.”