Mostafa Shabuj

Twenty years ago, Abdul Gafur Sheikh was a poor day-labourer and debt-ridden and found it difficult to feed a family of six.

Around 150 students in Sherpur, Bogura, are making profits by rearing deshi (local breed) chickens at their own rooftops or backyards.

Due to the sharp fall in the number of theatre audience for commercial movies, curtains are being drawn on a 28-year-old cinema hall in Bogura’s Dhunat upazila.

Farmers in various areas of the country are gradually shifting away from legumes in favour of other crops as lentils and pulses have become less profitable now.

SR Group has set up a chemical manufacturing plant in Bogura, the largest of its kind in the northern region of the country, at an investment of Tk 850 crore. The project went into operation last month.

Farmers of Bogura’s char areas alongside the Jamuna and Bangali rivers enjoyed good profit amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic by cultivating different varieties of pumpkins on the abandoned lands with little investment.

“I have been playing cricket at the Bogura Shaheed Chandu Stadium since I was eight. My father’s only dream is to see me in the women’s national team. And he tries his best to help me carry on my studies alongside cricket,” said Sraboni Rani Shil, a 14-year-old from the northern district.

The authorities of Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital recently cut off the branches of some trees that were home to a huge number of different species of birds. Amid protests from local environmental activists and conservationists, the director of RMCH admitted to the mistake and said he will refrain from such acts of environmental destruction in the future.

The Department of Archaeology continues to struggle to save one of the country’s and region’s most significant archaeological sites, Mahasthangarh in Bogura, due to the delay in acquiring 393 acres of land in the fort city.

Jackpot Cashew Nuts Industries started producing an assortment of cashew-nut based foods earlier this year in a bid to cash in on the growing demand for heart-healthy snacks.

A 13-year-old girl from a village in Bogura’s Dhunat upazila was abducted, gang raped for more than a month, and then left unconscious by a road on August 24. Her sufferings, however, were still not over.

While nearly every business sector in Bangladesh has been hit by the fallouts of the coronavirus pandemic, handicrafts have continued faring well in the global market.

Bogura, which has always been a district town known for centuries-old archaeological sites, is also home to around 10,000 families of weavers.

The spiralling prices of raw materials have been taking a heavy toll on the handicrafts makers in Bogura, as the Covid-19 outbreak, incessant rain and the fourth spell of flood have destroyed the whole supply chain in the district.

Olivia Hembrom, 33, was left wanting for food and work in March when coronavirus and a nationwide shutdown hit Bangladesh.

The proudest moment for a father, probably, is when he is known among friends and others through his children’s identity. For Hamdu Miah, a mere employee of the government’s central poultry farm, there probably is no other prouder feeling than being referred to as ‘Nahida’s [Akter] father’.

The Covid-19 crisis has made lives of many people, especially marginal farmers, miserable. To overcome this situation, the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Bogura has recently taken an initiative to distribute free vegetable seeds and money among the marginal farmers under the gardening project.

It is usually tough for women in our country to take up cricket -- or any other sport for that matter -- as a profession. For Murshida Khatun, a 21-year-old left-handed batter, it was even tougher.

A local Awami League leader in Nandigram, Bogura has reportedly stolen Tk 100 crore from his mother-in-law by forcing her to write him cheques and fixed deposit receipts, according to a complaint filed with Bogura Police Station.

Since the halt of cricketing activities due to the coronavirus pandemic, the hardships of male domestic cricketers were well documented, but the plight of female domestic players is as bad, if not worse.