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Teesta is my sorrow, also my joy

Octogenarian villagers reminisce about their childhood days, demand return of the river's youthfulness

S DILIP Roy, Lalmonirhat
"The River Teesta is my enemy, it is my life also," said octogenarian Quader Pramanik, who lost his homestead, croplands, orchards to the river at Paruliya village in Hatibandha upazila.
"Teesta made me destitute, a hand to mouth man, but I cannot go away from the river as I was born here. I played in the river water and enjoyed my childhood in its shoals and isles", said a beaming Pramanik, 85, while sitting by the Teesta on Saturday evening.
"I see the Teesta's ever changing beauties in the morning and evening
everyday and I feel bad when 1 miss the scenario. I forget my pain of losing everything to the hungry Teesta when I sit here on the dyke", Pramanik said.
Like Pramanik, another elderly man, Maqbul Hossain Munshi, 81, also comes to the Teesta embankment everyday to watch the river.
"Teesta was my life, but the river snatched away everything from me and made my life miserable", he said, adding Teesta's morning and evening views are really addictive as they wipe away all pains of his life.
"I felt very sad when
Teesta started to dry up. I weeped after watching its condition, but it was not the same just a few years ago", he said.
"When rainy season comes, it still floods the area and after some days it again gets almost dried up during the lean period", Munshi told this correspondent on the Teesta embankment at Paruliya village on Saturday evening.
"Teesta is our river, why is it controlled by other country? They use its water and stop the flow at their will, why? We want back our river and don't want to see it flowing like a canal
anymore," said another old man, Mirza Jamal Hossain, 78, of Dawabari village in Hatibandha upazila.
"I want to die watching the river flowing and dancing with full vigour round the year for I was born on a Teesta char and deem it as my mother," he said.
People living in the Teesta char areas get rejuvenated when they see the river with its normal flow. But they get frustrated when the river dries up. If the river gets its due share of water round the year, it will save lives of millions and environment and return to its beauty it had 10 years ago, locals said.