'People remember us once every year. But we live this life year long'

On 3 April, the roller shutters opened and the brief clunky mechanical sound stopped. A dust-layered glass counter, also a wooden bench and shelf, came into view. 

Alif's drug house, a pharmacy in Savar, had opened after a few days – not for business, but because the owner, Mahmudul Hasan Hridoy, had visitors from Dhaka city. After Hridoy limped up to his shop with his crutch and wiped the counter with a cloth, he picked up a couple of medicine boxes from the shelves.

'I cannot keep a job because I fear the building will collapse'

"Can I show you something?" he coyly asked. He gave the boxes a nudge. They were either fully empty or half empty. "Business is dead," he went on to explain. 

Hridoy is the president of the Savar Rana Plaza Survivors Association, comprised of over 300 survivors. Along with managing his six-year-old failing business and his own medication and treatment bills induced by the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse, Hridoy said he actively supports and assists his association. 

The emotional strain takes a heavy toll on him; sometimes, heftier than financial hardship. 

"Even today [11 April] I had five people come to my house and weep for help. But what am I to do for them? I told my landlord that I'm closing the pharmacy. That he should put up a To-Let sign.`` 

'They call me nengra doctor'

Hridoy opened his drug store six years ago and named it Rana Plaza Victim. But shortly changed it to his only son's namesake, Alif. This was the time when he, in his own words, "returned from the hospital." What he means it was not until 2017 that his hospital visits and admissions started to become infrequent. And consequently, he could run his shop. 

Photo: Noor-A-Alam

Hridoy said he received Tk36 lakh from a property sale in his maternal grandmother's village in Manikganj (In a New York Times report from 2018 he is quoted as having received the money from the Trust Fund for Rana Plaza victims). 

"I used the money to open the shop, to pay off medical bills at the time, and also build a house for my elderly parents in our village." 

Due to Hridoy's reeling injuries – which mainly affected his spine, initially paralysed his limbs, and caused palpitation and chest pain from the 6-inch deep penetration from a rod among other things – he cannot sit or stand for too long. "I used to rest and lie down in intervals on the bed behind the shop's shelf," he explained. The headaches are still extreme. 

"People call me nengra [crippled] Hridoy, or nengra doctor, in the area."

But the business had seen better days.

'I have nothing. Rana Plaza took my everything'

"In my good years, my profit was around Tk30,000 per month" he said, "this helped me pay off my medication cost [Hridoy estimates it at Tk8-10 thousand a month], family expenses, etc."

Hridoy did business with pharmaceutical companies such as Acme, Opsonin, ACI, BioPharma, Everest, etc. But the pandemic altered everything. "I suffered from a heart attack in the first month of reported coronavirus cases in the country," said Hridoy.  

The lockdown was a huge blow, one that he never could fully recover from. "It has been one year now that I am struggling to keep my shop open." 

Recently, things took a turn for the worse. "Currently, my rent is Tk3,000 a month," said Hridoy, "I also have business debt amounting to Tk3-4 lakh — none of which I can afford. I do not see a way out." 

Broken spine, broken family, broken promises

Hridoy said he was a newlywed at the time of the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013. They remained married for a matter of a couple of months before his first wife left. 

At the time, he was undergoing intensive treatment. "I woke up at the hospital 17 days after I was rescued from the site. I was in and out of hospital for four years straight, sometimes for months I stayed on a hospital bed," he recalled. 

Hridoy married for the second time. "My relationship with my second wife lasted 2-3 years. "We have a son together, Yasir Arafat Alif," said Hridoy, "but she left. With a lot of Trust money. She said it was my physical problems."

Hridoy said he received Tk1 lakh and 17 thousand from the Trust money. The Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund is a $30 million endowment underwritten by brands. 

Hridoy pays his second wife Tk2,000 monthly as a child allowance. He knows where she lives and speaks to his son regularly over the phone. "But I do not get to hear him call me baba [in person]." 

After his second wife left, Hridoy married again in 2018. "This was my longest marriage — it lasted five years. But my third wife left me on 8 February this year. Due to financial hardship," he said. Currently, Hridoy lives with his younger brother and his brother's wife in Savar. Hridoy also has two elderly parents in his Manikganj village to look after. 

"People remember us once every year. But we live this life year long. There is no end in sight for my own suffering," said Hridoy. 

"Hundreds of people, leaders of all levels, will gather on the anniversary date," said Hridoy, "but there is no financial help. We [as an association] have written to the PM office, to the UNO office, to NGOs, for assistance, but to no avail."

Mahmudul Hasan Hridoy Photo: Noor-A-Alam

'Maybe you will hear that I met the same fate' 

The survivors association crowdfunds to support themselves. "We raise money from grocers, rickshaw pullers, shopkeepers, etc." explained Hridoy. An iftar gathering would cost around at least Tk50,000, according to Hridoy's estimates. 

Many have long left to their village towns. "But I also see many returning to Savar either to look for work or for medical treatment," he said, who estimates there are 200-250 Rana Plaza survivors in total who still reside in the area. 

And many have been forced to take on paths of no return. 

A total of at least 1,132 people died and at least 2,000 others were injured in the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse. 

"I remember seeing groups and associations sprouting like mushrooms. That's when a close acquaintance said we should make an association ourselves," said Hridoy.

When Sohel Rana was recently granted bail by the High Court, "we went to protest at the Press Club in Dhaka, but that's the thing, at this point we cannot continue. We don't have the money to commute to Dhaka," explained Hridoy. 

Many of his association members received compensation amounting to less than Tk1 lakh and in instalments. Many received over Tk1 lakh. "Not even close to enough," Hridoy said.  

Hridoy knows several who take it to the streets to beg for money, but it's perhaps easier to wear burkha and do so. "With my shop closed, I might have to beg. I don't know what else to do but beg for money."

Among the 300+ survivors' in the association, 14 have already died. "We [association] were able to pay for six people's burial and funeral expenses. Not everyone's," he said. One member died by suicide. "Salma did not tell me that things got so bad." 

"Who knows, with how things are going, maybe you will hear that I met the same fate," concluded Hridoy.