My father is a truck driver and he used to lose all his earnings by gambling then after he returned home he claimed that my mother was responsible for his loses! He used to torture my mother for almost everything. After coming back from work he used to beat my mother and curse at her for any small reason every day. Why is the rice not hot? Why is his hot water not ready for his bath? Why is there nothing to eat at home? For anything! My mother had to face a lot of bad behaviour from my father. I never saw a single moment when my mother was smiling in my entire life!
Last month my father brought one of his ugly old friends to our home to present to me and to fix a marriage with that man! He said his friend won a gambling game with him and won a lot of money! But my father doesn’t have any money so the only option is now to marry me off with his friend! My mother held his legs and begged for my life! But he did not listen and started beating my mother again.
The next morning my mother held my hand and we ran away from our home I followed my mother not knowing where we were going. We started working here last month. My mother is sick and has not been able to work the last two weeks. Now I have to work alone for food for both of us. I work very hard every day from the very early morning till evening in order to provide three meals a day. In my father’s home I didn’t have to work this hard. But I can handle this hard work because I feel respected for my work. And I realized being hungry and doing hard work is much better than being disrespected. -Alpona (Collected from GMB Akash’s Facebook page)