Utpal and wife planned big to celebrate their anniversary. It darkened into a day of mourning

Jun 30 this year was the third marriage anniversary of Beauty Rani Nandi and Utpal Kumar Sarker, a teacher of political science at Haji Yunus Ali School and College in Savar’s Ashulia.

Israil Hossain Babu, Sirajganj Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 4 July 2022, 03:37 AM
Updated : 4 July 2022, 03:37 AM

The couple planned a big bash this year to celebrate the occasion, inviting their near and dear ones over to his parent’s place in the district’s Duttapara Elangjani village, which lies on the edge of Chalan Beel, a large wetland, and is at least 30 km away from the Sirajganj township.

Utpal’s plan to gather his loved ones did not pan out exactly as intended as he succumbed to his injuries three days before the event after being assaulted by a student of his with a cricket stump at the school’s playground on Jun 25.

His loved ones gathered nonetheless though. Not to celebrate, but to say goodbye to the 37-year-old for the final time, on Jul 1.

Beauty, who works as a government employee in Dhaka and came to Dattapara Elangjani for her husband's last rites, has yet to grasp the reality that she became a widow so soon after the marriage because some 19-year-old went into a fit of rage for being told that he cannot pull off whatever he likes within the school grounds.

She was wearing a white saree, and the vermilion from her forehead was wiped off in line with Hindu traditions for widows. She had to take off her marriage’s most precious sign -- a sacred thread known as Mangalsutra and broke her conch-made bracelet.

The couple had no children.

“I was fasting and had a pledge to pray at the temple that day. He went to work after having breakfast. I went to my brother’s place after and was busy preparing for the prayer. My phone was switched off, so I only heard about my husband’s condition in the evening,” she said.

Utpal went into a coma immediately after the assault and he never came out of it.

“I couldn’t ask him for one last time how I'm going to survive without him by myself,” an inconsolable Beauty said.

The couple got married in 2019 and due to the pandemic, they were unable to start living together until eight months ago, Beauty said.

“I was living at my brother’s place in Dhaka at the time, while my husband was residing in Ashulia. We only saw each other over the weekends. Only eight months ago, we started living together at a place in Mirpur’s Modhhya Paikpara,” she said.

Utpal was a loving, supportive husband, she said; he always shared any issues, personal or otherwise, with her.

“He relied on me a lot as well. I've never seen him having negative thoughts, and he always supported and advised me in my endeavours. I don’t know whom I should resort to for advice from now.”

Her relatives and neighbours shared the despair she was feeling.

Utpal, the youngest of eight siblings, was a student of political science from Chattogram University and since his graduation, the only thing that mattered to him was helping his extended family to lead a decent life, his brothers said.

He helped his brothers Asim and Asit to set up a tailoring shop in Ashulia, and found jobs for Ajay, the eldest among the brothers, and fourth brother Ashutosh in two separate textile factories in Dhaka.

Ajay’s wife Iti had practically raised Utpal like her own son. Utpal always remembered that. He made sure his nephew Abhishek Sarker studied hard and it paid off as he is now a student at Utpal’s alma mater.

“I was like a son to my uncle. He kept a tab on my education since I was just a kid. I'm studying mathematics at the university he went to just because of him,” Abhishek said.

Ashraful Islam Jitu, the 10th-grader student accused of murdering Utpal, was arrested by Rapid Action Battalion in Gazipur’s Sreepur last Wednesday. His father Ujjal Hossain was in police custody at the time.

[Writing in English by Adil Mahmood]