Photo Feature



A photofeature by Mumit M.

“Fish, I love you and respect you very much.
But I will kill you dead before this day ends.”

-Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

“My old generation were real fishermen. They caught fishes and sold them to Showary Ghat. My young brother started the business with me 15 years ago, but last year he left and went abroad. I can't buy fishes like in old days when there was a variety of fishes at cheap rates. Now, you'll get a few kinds of common fishes at almost fixed prices, and I can't afford to let my family have it -- I've to keep it to sell the next day.

-- Md. Ramzan, one of the fish sellers from the market.

There was a phrase in Bangla “Mchhe bhate Bangali” (Bangali feed on fish and rice). But this phrase is not in use any more. With changes in the global climate, uncontrolled fishing, water pollution etc. - fishes are now becoming scarce and more expensive. Nowadays, the availability of farm fishes is going up, but the number of fish markets is going down.

Town Hall, Mohammadpur is one of the fish markets of the west side of new Dhaka still trying to fulfill the city's demands for fishes. A few years ago, there were many people in the fishing industry, but this number is decreasing day by day.