Henna colored finger. Own made cake and a bunch of Rajnigandha. Even if you can't see the excitement of the face hidden behind the hijab, you can easily see it. Jannatul Ferdous got up from her seat as soon as MV Jahan Mani-3, which brought 23 sailors including husband Nooruddin, returned to the country after a continuous month of strangulation by the pirates, many worries and struggles, life and death struggle. After a while, pushing the crowd, this woman moved forward within touching distance of the ship. As soon as the husband got down the ladder, she said, 'Extend your hand, I want to hold your finger again.'
May 8 was the four year anniversary of the Nooruddin-Jannatul couple's marriage. On November 25 last year, Nooruddin had promised to spend the day together alone. But the wait for Jannatul has been long as the husband was held hostage for a month by bandits. There was no laughter even on Eid because her husband was not by her side, even on the day of the wedding anniversary; this woman's companion was depressed. Finally the husband is within breathing distance. Jannatul also got a day of laughter after many days of sadness!
The sailors had to fall in front of the media when they disembarked from the ship. Jannatul took her husband away from the crowd to avoid this 'sweet pain'. Sitting her husband next to her, she was saying in her heart - 'If you come after some time, sit down. You had a lot to say if you listen.' Nooruddin was saying all the accumulated words. How he was taken hostage, how were those terrible days and nights spent with the bandits, then the joy of release, returning to the country - everything.
The 'personal talk' is over, now Jannatul is not restricted from talking to the media. Laughing, she said, 'I haven't seen the man in a while. The bandits were armed with heavy weapons, and their throats were dry with fear. My husband was repeatedly assuring me that the robbers had done nothing. However, sitting a little closer, I carefully checked that the bandits did not hurt anything. Do you understand your wife's mind?' Jannatul laughed once more.
Jannatul didn't sleep all night on Sunday waiting for her husband to come, to see him directly with his own eyes. I made cakes till 2 am, and cooked my husband's favorite food. Then I went to sleep. But at four o'clock in the night sleep was broken, from then on, just waiting for four o'clock in the afternoon. Jannatul said once.
Sailor means life afloat running from this port to that port. There is extreme loneliness, along with sea storms and the fear of being preyed upon by pirates. Before marrying Nooruddin in 2020, some people reminded Jannatul of those things. But none of these could swallow this young girl, Nooruddin who was very much in her heart. Bringing that up again, he said, 'When I first heard that their ship had been captured by bandits. It was as if my whole world had ended. Today he came back to me. I am smiling; I have to cry for a long time to get this opportunity.
Will the celebration end because the wedding-anniversary cake was not cut together with the husband? That is not to be. Jannatul applied henna to the hand. She brought two chocolate cakes made by herself. Showing henna-colored hands, she said to herself, 'I lost him. Now I got it again. As she got a new life, I also got a new husband. To remember the day, applying henna on the hands, making so many arrangements for making cakes.
Two-and-a-half-year-old Saad bin Noor, who came to greet his father riding on his mother's lap, is not yet old enough to understand what his father is. He was playing quietly to his own rhythm. Sometimes he was doing childish mischief. But the way the father raised his hand and went silent, it was understood that he was waiting for the father's touch.
With his son in his arms, Nooruddin could not contain his emotions. Nooruddin could not properly answer the question, how does it feel that this son has recaptured his father's chest. He was just saying in a low voice, 'Since the bandits were in the hands of the bandits, the boy's face was floating in his eyes. I wondered what would have happened to my son if I hadn't. And he remembered his mother-father-wife. Thanks to Allah He brought us back home. It's like we got a second life.'
Time was getting older. By the clock, it was 5:30 p.m. and it was approaching 6:00 p.m. The Chattogram Port Authority's arrangements for welcoming sailors to the NCT-1 jetty of Chattogram Port are also nearing completion. Now it's time to return home with the loved one.
Jannatul's mind became depressed as soon as this question flew from the surrounding, what will you send your husband to the sea before that? Eyelids become moist. The endless 30 days of her husband's hostage were floating on the screen of this woman's eyes like a film. She calmed down her emotions and said, 'The sea is his livelihood and our means of survival. So we have to go to the sea.
Somewhere in the distance someone was singing that immortal song of Rabindranath - 'If the light of sorrow shines, then so be it.'