"Turn right, baba," the little girl sitting on the crossbar tells her father, "stop right here." The rickshaw comes to a stop and the passenger pays the fare, to the little girl. She gives backTk 5 as change.

Theirs is a father-daughter team. She is the eyes of her father Monir Hossain, for

he is blind since age two and pulling the rickshaw is his job.

"Faria directs me on the road," said Monir while taking a break from the hard labour. Afroza Faria is a second-grader in the local primary school at Sundarpur in Feni. She also takes care of the fare.

They go out after Faria's school. She

takes her place on the crossbar of the rickshaw that has seen better days. She has been doing this since she was five.

"I pull in somewhere around Tk 100 to Tk 150.1 don’t work after Maghreb, the evening prayers, said Monir.

It was Monir's elder son Sharif, now 18, who used to be his eyes before Faria grew up. Sharif is a CNG driver now.

Monir had been the subject of a TV program and it earned him one lakh taka. He used some of the money to train his son to drive the auto rickshaw. Then there were other needs. He also spent some money for treatment of his eyes, in the hope that he might see again.

At the moment, seeing again is too ambitious for Monir. Getting his second child — Swarna Akhter, 16 — married off is more pressing for him.

Monir has managed to be the blind rickshaw-puller for 28 years now.

"I won't be able to do anything better than pulling a rickshaw," he sighed. I will end my life this way."