Mathews Chiran

It had nearly been an hour, but Khadiza Khatun was still moving from vendor to vendor with her empty bazaar bag in Tejgaon kitchen market.

After six months of staying indoors due to the coronavirus fallout, 56-year-old Aleya Akter is back with her weighing machine on the pavement right across a Badda supermarket.

Mostafa Kamal (45) has been working as an ambulance driver for nearly 10 years. In the past, he took two to three calls per day, which would be enough to meet his family’s needs.

In the middle of March, when Covid-19 started sweeping across the nation, Mithun Raksam, a poet and publisher from the Garo community, got a heart-breaking phone call from an acquaintance.

A Facebook post with the picture of a Garo woman made by a maid-providing agency has caused outrage among social media users, including people from the ethnic minority community.

Sixty-four-year-old Habibur Rahman came to Dhaka from Narsingdi in 1988. For the past 32 years, he has been selling books around the city, and now, to the elderly man’s amazement, he is selling books online with the help of his son.

Bobita Dalboth was supposed to stay busy with customers during this time of the year. Pre-Eid is the most profitable time for beauticians like her. On the busiest days, clients would have to line up and wait for their turn to get some last minute grooming done.

Mayor-elect Atiqul Islam of Dhaka North City Corporation hasn’t taken over office yet, and the city is already undergoing a huge challenge in the form of a coronavirus outbreak. The Daily Star spoke to Atiqul recently about his work during the Covid-19 crisis, as well as plans for the city.

As the clock hits 12:30pm, a group of people can be seen busily organising meal-plates at the Mazaa restaurant in front of Mohammadpur Tajmahal Road’s Krishi Market.

With the shutdown in place to contain the spread of coronavirus, many ongoing development works of the two Dhaka city corporations have come to a standstill.

After a tiring session of painting a nearby store, labourer Shaheen Mia finds the newly set up public hand-washing station, and he along with his co-worker grabs the bar of soap and scrubs away all dirt and grime, and possibly the coronavirus.

Empty roads, shuttered shops and few people in sight, the effects of the coronavirus can be seen everywhere across the country. And yet, even during these times, work must carry on for many residents of the city.

As Covid-19 has everyone worried across the country, people are compelled to take precautionary measures, such as frequently washing hands and using hand sanitisers to ward off the highly contagious disease.

With the arrival of novel coronavirus striking fear in the hearts of many, misinformation circulated through social media and leaflets by a number of government bodies has caused worries for pet owners in the capital, as some landlords have notified tenants to get rid of their pets or vacate the house.

Development work is an inseparable part of urbanisation. It is inevitable that sometimes even the busiest footpaths will have to be blocked, for the sake of maintaining the asphalt or repairing the utility lines that run underneath.

Ekushey book fair has become a symbol of our national identity. The overwhelming presence of not just literary enthusiasts but also writers, poets and publishers at Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan speaks volumes about the love for books in our hearts.

Although spring sky took a shade of uncharacteristic gloom yesterday, it was no match for last-minute shoppers, who turned out in droves at Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela.

The walkway along the Shahjadpur canal that goes through in Baddda and Shahjadpur has become a risky commute for locals due to a lack of safety railings along it, leaving pedestrians -- especially children -- at a risk of falling in.

They say, this land has been my home for thousands of years

The government move to ensure children from ethnic communities are given early childhood education in their mother tongue is apparently falling flat due to a lack of teachers with a good command of these languages.