By Nafisa Awal
“…dig deeper, or else the odour will bother people.’’
With utter disgust visible in Abdul Matin’s face, he commands the caretaker of their condominium, Khalek. They are burying a dead dog. The dog died at night, and it was poisoned.
But how and why it was poisoned is yet to unfold.
The condominium we’re talking about is Bashir City, located in the heart of Mirpur. Bashir City is quite an old condominium in Dhaka; after the War, a group of Japanese engineers came to Mirpur to build this condominium for some ‘elite-class’ people in Dhaka. Most of the people, by chance, were freedom fighters, and they gradually handed over their property to their offspring. Matin is the proud son of a freedom fighter and a respected member of the owners’ association of Bashir City.
Matin did not do much in his life, and he had his father’s wealth to live his life easily. Matin’s father, as he was a freedom fighter, was also a renowned doctor. He married a woman named Rokeya Khan from an affluent family. Therefore, Matin had no stress to live his life; he did some small businesses.
Matin is not hard-working; he believes in saying rather than doing. He has only said motivational things that he would do all his life but eventually, did nothing. He is like the typical uncle in every colony who lectures children that they should study hard and be doctors or engineers, as if these are the only options that exist.
The biggest achievement in Matin’s life is that he has a well-behaved son and an obedient wife. Rokeya is a typical Bengali woman who believes her only duty is to be a submissive and committed wife. She managed to be a great housewife in Matin’s eyes and also a great mother, and Matin loves her for that. As well as for her wealth, which Matin would never talk about.
Their only son, Rafin, is loved by all. He is a university student, a good one at that, and a well-behaved, religious boy. Rafin also loves to play cricket; he regularly plays with other boys in the afternoon at the colony. Rafin is idolised by many different boys and admired by all. As a father, Matin always showcased his son as his biggest possession. Matin always portrays his son as a showpiece that he can show off, always taking the credit for raising him well. Matin loves hearing, “Your son is a good boy, you have raised him well…” somehow, Matin sees his father’s unfulfilled dreams embedded in Rafin. Seeing Rafin succeeding in life, Matin hears his late father’s voice, “Matin would shine and become an engineer!” but Matin could not do anything except be the chairman of Bashir City’s owners’ association.
Matin is incompetent to be the chairman, but he is, because he is well respected, mainly because of his father. Also, he never did anything bad or scandalous, so people respected him. There were better candidates, but somehow, Matin got the job. Matin became extremely arrogant after that, he fell into the trap of a superiority complex.
The superiority complex started having no boundaries.
His pride was at a height that caused suffering to the residents, cats, and dogs. One day, at the owners’ association meeting, somebody raised a concern regarding stray dogs roaming around. Someone’s child was terrified by the dog and started crying so loudly that the child’s parents were concerned. Matin, being the chairman, commanded that they must be killed without any doubt.
Somebody asked, “How and why must we kill them; they are not biting us.”
“They must be killed because this is the place for humans, not animals.”
“But how would you kill them? There are so many!”
“Leave that to me.”
That night, Matin thought about how to kill the animals. He has never killed any animal, but his view has changed; anything that shows he possesses power, will be accepted by him. From that day, Matin killed about three dogs by poisoning. At first, he was skeptical about the poison Khalek brought him; he was unsure if it could kill the dogs. Khalek insisted and told Matin to mix the poison with some delicious food, and then he tried. It worked exactly how Matin wanted.
One day, July came as a normal month, but it lasted for 36 days, leaving a massacre.
Rafin disobeyed his father and started protesting against the authoritarian regime on the streets. He was so disturbed that he stopped going home; he was on the streets for three days. And on the fourth day, he came back as a corpse. He was shot three times by the police.
The entire Bashir City was a muted world; Rafin, beloved by all, was now much more adored for being a martyr. The boy loved by all will now be worshipped by all, as was his grandfather. Matin and Rokeya, with the deepest void, accepted that their only son was no more, but he died as a hero. Everybody recognises him as a martyr just like his grandfather- this is way more prestigious for them now.
A couple of days later, a banner was hung in front of the main gate of Bashir City, which stated, “With a heavy weight, we mourn for our beloved son and martyr of this country, Rafin Ahmed, who died on July 29, 2024, while protesting against the fascist government…” Everybody who passed the street and saw the banner remembered him as a hero. Now, Matin is the proud son of a freedom fighter and a proud father of a martyr. Everybody is way more respectful towards him, and his superiority is now at another height.
But things took a turn one day. Matin, who was killing dogs by poisoning them and burying them in the backyard that only a few people of the colony knew, faced the worst danger that he could imagine.
As Martin was used to poisoning the dogs and burying them, he one night thought that there were cats as well, so he should prepare more foods that he could mix poison with. So he did. The day after, he could hear frightened screams from people as soon as he woke up; it was nearly noon. He saw a group of people staring at ten dogs and six cats that died after eating poisoned food. He saw most of the people were outsiders because it was Friday, and people were sure that they were poisoned as by no logic, this amount of animals could die in a night. For the first time in his entire life, he was unable to pray; he could not go to the mosque- people were shaming him, bashing him. Everybody forgot he was the father of a martyr. People paid no attention to the banner with Rafin’s face on it.
A couple of days later, the Bashir City owners’ association asked for forgiveness by stating and hanging another banner beside Rafin’s, “…we have always loved animals; all that happened was a misunderstanding…” Everybody in front of the banner looked at the notice with utter disgust.
Now, nobody pays attention to Rafin’s martyrdom.