Do you think you know Pain?

"Step it up a notch! The road is empty." Tahrin gaslights Emon from the side seat, as a Premio hurls through the night city at 100 km/h. Suddenly, a figure appears out of the darkness in the middle of the road. Emon swirls and breaks and the car skids and drifts and barely avoids the man and the back of the car swings itself at the road divider. "Shit, shit, shit, are you okay?" Emon looks at Tahrin. She replies with a fear-stricken voice, "I, I am." Emon steps out of the car and rushes to see the horror that has unfolded on the back of the vehicle. A huge dent in the back. "Father will kill him for this." Meanwhile, the lingering figure slowly has managed to cross the road. "You bastard, you piece of filth trash." Emon rushes to the man while Tahrin slowly gets out of the car. The man looks at Emon as Emon hurls all the slang at the man, "You shit, do you know how much pain you have caused?" Nurunabi replies, "You think you know pain?"

Nurunabi had a beautiful family, a loving wife, and two sweet children. They had a 800 sqft house in Hazaribagh, but as if their happiness could ever be enclosed in 800 sqfts. The children were playful and joyous and perhaps all the happiness of the world was there, at Nurunabi's homestead. He had a small shop, in front of the house. He earned a good amount of money every month, to keep the four happy, and send the children to good schools in Dhaka. Well, it was back in 2019. 2019 was 6 years ago. COVID came and hurled our lives in the polar opposite direction. Nurunabi tried to keep the store open in lockdown, he had mouths to feed. He got COVID. And, it quickly spread in his household. His wife had breathing problems. Things became quite difficult for her. She was admitted to an ICU, while Dhaka was running out of ICUs and oxygen. ICU couldn't keep her alive though. Next it was Nishi, their smallest child, 6 years of age. She cried for days, wanting to see her mother. Nurunabi tried, tried to keep her alive, tried to give her everything possible, he went everywhere. But they couldn't keep her alive. He lost both her wife and smallest child within 2 months of each other. Nurunabi now had only Swapno, the elder child. "Baba, you are my dream baba, you are everything I have." This is what Nurunabi was saying while crying at Nishi's janaja. 

Things were slowly healing. Nurunabi's business was recovering after COVID-19. Swapno was now in college, and Nurunabi couldn't be less happy with his dream son. It was July, 2024. Swapno, like all the brave dreamy teens out there, had a dream. They wanted a new country. Swapno went to the streets with protests. He was shot, shotgun bullets charred Nurunabi's dream. "Allah, please save my son, please," as Nurunabi rushed to the hospital to see his son. "Baba, I will be okay, look how brave I was", Swapno pointed his fingers at the gunshot wounds. Nurunabi was just crying, and couldn't speak a word. These were the last words Swapno uttered on 6th August. Swapno needed an expensive operation. Nurunabi turned all stones to save his son. He sold his wife's Jewellery, sold his wedding gifts. Later on, he rented out their home, the last fragment of his dreamland, and started to live in the hospital beside Swapno's bed. He prayed so that his dream life could be back. It did not. Swapno passed away on 20th December 2024, after battling for 4 months. Nurunabi went out of the hospital. Destination? Nowhere, perhaps. 

Nurunabi slowly walked along the Mawa Expressway. Suddenly, he started slowly walking on the middle of the road, as vehicles whizzed by in the night. And then, Emon's car suddenly appeared, skidded and hit the barrier and suddenly a boy, same aged as Swapno was standing infront of him. Emon's pain went head on with Nurunabi's. And it was at that moment, Nurunabi decided to utter his last words, "So you think you know pain?"