Rana Talukder, who worked as a car driver, left home after lunch with the family on August 5 to celebrate, like many others, the fall of the Awami League.
But, the joyful moments became fateful as Rana, the prime breadwinner of the family, died after being shot about 7:30pm near the Uttara East police station.
鈥榃e are as good as dead now. Life has plunged into darkness,鈥� said Ranu, Rana鈥檚 wife, on October 17.
Student protests seeking reforms in civil service job reservations, which began on July 1, flared into a mass uprising by the end of the month and toppled the Awami League government on August 5.
The Directorate General of Health Services on September 24 said that it had listed 708 people having died in the protests and uprising.
The health affairs sub-committee of the Students against Discrimination on September 28, however, said that the figure was 1,581.
Both Rana and his elder brother Roni Talukder joined the celebrations. Having heard of gunshots being fired around, their mother, Rubi Begum, went out to bring them back.
Rana, 32 years old, told her mother that he was going to find his brother Roni and they would all return home together.
Roni later found Rana shot near the police station. Physicians at Uttara Modern Medical College Hospital pronounced him dead when he was taken there at 8:10pm.
Rana married Ranu 12 years ago after courtship. They had a son, Meheraj Talukder, two years and a half ago.
Rana, who lost his father to a traffic accident when he was five, wanted to give his son all the love and a good education that he was denied. 鈥業t will never happen,鈥� Ranu, 30 years old said.
Rubi Begum raised her sons and a daughter with what she earned off household services work. 鈥業 had to work hard to raise them. My son died when it was time for me for some comfort in life,鈥� she lamented.
Rana, the second child, married off his younger sister in June. He spent Tk 300,000 taken out in loan. He told his mother to stop doing household services work once the loan would be repaid. He used to earn Tk 22,000 a month.
鈥楳y health has broken down. I cannot work now the way I used to do,鈥� said Rubi, 50 years old, who earns Tk 10,000 in wages a month.
Rubi, the only one left to earn the family bread, lives in a two-room, tin-shed house in the Kachabajar Jamtala area at Uttara along with Rana鈥檚 wife and the grandson.
She pays Tk 10,000 in rent and utilities for the house. They live on the food neighbours supply them with.
Roni, who has had health complications since a traffic accident about five years ago, is unemployed. He lives separately with his family.
The family received Tk 100,000 from the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami after Rana鈥檚 death.