A full lunch for Taka 20,is still available in the city. So rickshaw peddlers, rag pickers and others, who can not afford more than that flocks around wayside eateries of Momena Khala’s at convenient places like the Central Shahid Minar under a shade of few surviving trees, where traffic congestion is less for the rickshaw peddlers squatting around the pots of rice, lentil and potato mesh and a jar of water.
Momena known as auntie to all her clients lives far away to the city’s northern suburb of Badda. Her rickshaw peddler husband carries her every morning along with her pots of cooked rice, lentil and potato mesh and plates and glasses and a jar of water to the corner of the Shahid Minar, where rickshaw peddlers takes a break at lunch time. For them a cheap filling lunch is the most welcome relief after a gruelling morning under scorching sun sapping their energy for which they need a little relief from Momena aunties. Just like her, many other aunties runs wayside eateries all around the Shahid Minar and Dhaka University. Some sell glasses of milk with a loaf of bread. Momena makes about Tk 200 at the end of the day, almost the same as her husband earns before he takes her back home in the evening to cater for their two children. She said, she is happy to supplement the family budget after paying to meet her customers needs.
-With The Independent input
