A Gas-Balloon Seller

First Published

Long time ago there was an old man. He was a merchant. He had a business of a gas-balloon. He started selling gas-balloon when he was 12 years old. He started this business from his village. After that he came at Dhaka city. Instantly he developed his life by selling gas-balloon.

When I was three years old then I saw him. And I asked my mother about him. Then my mother told me about him. My mother saw him from her childhood. She saw that man always as same.

When the man used to sell the gas-balloons then he used to recite a rhyme like singing style. The rhyme was:

‘Gas-balloon char-ana
Dhaira rakhben charben-na
Chaira dile woira jaibo
Ar fira paiben-na…………’

[Gas-balloon is at tk 0.25;
Don’t leave, hold it;
If it is left then it will fly away;
You won’t get back that.]

He had polygamy. But he did that for some reasons. He got his second marriage after the death of his first wife. When his second wife died then he got third marriage and she also died. After the death of his third wife he got fourth marriage. But when she died then he decided that he will never get married. He took this as his fate and bad luck.

His has seven sons & five daughters. He made his all children educated. At a time he built seven buildings in Dhaka city & day by day he became a rich man. But he never changed his occupation.

I always saw him as same. I heard from my mother that she never saw any changes on him. He always put on lunge (like skirt), genji (T-shirt) & plastic shoes. Just his voice became changed for his age. But he always used to sell Baloons by reciting:

‘Gas-balloon char-ana
Dhaira rakhben charben-na
Chaira dile woira jaibo
Ar fira paiben-na…………’

Suddenly I heard that the man died. It is unbelievable but it’s true that when he died he was 150 years old. Today he is no more with us but I will remember him forever.