As the soft morning sunlight gently filtered through the leaves across the lush green tea gardens, little Pranab Das, a first-grader at Kalapani Primary School, was walking along the earthen path of the Udalia tea estate. While there might have been the joy of the upcoming Puja holidays, that happiness was underpinned by the familiar, quiet struggle of a tea-worker's family. However, the moment he stepped onto the school premises, Pranab's tiny world transformed in an instant.
Placed into his small hands were a bright new school bag, notebooks, and pencils. He stared in sheer wonder at the gifts, as if unable to believe his own fortune. For how many days had he carried his books in a torn bag and tried to write with a half-broken pencil? Today, a wave of boundless joy crashed over his little heart. Pranab clutched the bag tightly to his chest with one hand, just as mothers protect their children with utmost care.
Marking Chitra Post's 28th anniversary under the banner of 'A Good Deed', members of Chittagong Bondhushabha visited the Alhaj Mostafizur Rahman Primary School, located in the Udalia tea garden of Fatikchhari upazila, on October 25. There, the activists distributed educational supplies—including new school bags, notebooks, pencils, erasers, sharpeners, scales, and pencil boxes—to nearly 100 students from three institutions, including the Chikonchhara Government Primary School.
At the beginning of the distribution event, Bondhushabha member and Jahanara Momtaz Girls' High School Headmaster Pallabi Khastagir said, 'There should be no discrimination among children. They must not carry any separate tag of being tea-workers' children. These tender-hearted students will not only illuminate the Udalia tea gardens, but given adequate opportunities, one day—'
