Little Champa, a dinghy and the tale of a helpless father

Champa is a shy little girl from Chatolpur in Companiganj, Sylhet.  

Ask her if she had anything to eat this morning, Champa wouldn't say a word. Her two other little siblings would keep staring at you. Her father on the little dinghy would stare at you the same. 

They wouldn't say a word. Yet you already know what is happening to them.

They ate nothing last night. 

On Tuesday morning when we met them, father Pakinda Biswas brought them to the Sylhet-Companiganj highway with the hope that they would find something to eat. The family has lost everything including their house and belonging in the flood. 

 Where is your wife? We asked Pakinda. 

"I left her at neighbour's house and brought the kids here if I get something for them," he told in a low and weak voice. You would realise the man has been unfed for a long time.

Soon Pakinda started to roam around the street among the crowd of dozens of other homeless men and women.  

In the meantime, we also got occupied listening to many other people. 

Around an hour later when we got back to the dinghy again, we found that the father had managed his kids a plate of plain rice. 

Champa, and her siblings shared the rice among themselves. It was their first food in a long time. 

After eating rice, Champa warmed up a bit with us. The plate of rice has brought some life back to the kids.

She is a student of class three in a primary school in her village in Chatolpur. Her father is a day labourer and her mother is a housewife. 

"Our home has washed away in the flood. We live in this dinghy now. This is all we have," Champa said. 

How is your mother? We asked her. 

"My mother always cries because we have no food," she replied. "We came here to get some food for her." 

Two hours after this conversation when we were returning from the flood-stricken villages, we found the kids still on the dinghy waiting for their father. 

"Abbu is still looking for food," Champa said. 

The smile that the plate of rice brought to these kids was already gone. The tiniest one was crying. 

A truck with relief packages was standing nearby. Champa said her father was trying to get relief from the truck. 

But they were anxious if their father would get them anything. 

Hundreds of people lined up before the relief truck. It was another level of chaos of hungry people screaming for food all around. 

We looked for Pakinda Biswas among the crowd. But he was nowhere to be found. 

The weaker he already was after days of hunger, it was hard to anticipate if he could manage to fight to get a package of the relief. 

The kids on the little dinghy, however, were staring at the crowd with anticipation that they will have the next meal with their mother.