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7 A Robbed Childhood
Warm Up
● As a child, what are the things you enjoy doing?
Reading skills
The Story of Bijoy
When Bijoy was eight years old, his father passed away. His mother uprooted him from his
hometown and handed him over to his elder sister and her husband. They promptly put him
to work in highly dangerous conditions on a lake.
For long hours every day, he had to paddle the canoe, cast nets and even dive deep to untangle
nets. When he was not
working on the lake, he
had to pack the fish for
sale in the market. He
was insulted and beaten
whenever he made a
mistake.
For eight years, Bijoy did
all kinds of dangerous
tasks. He made friends
with another boy named
Malik, who was also
forced to work on the
lake, where they fished all day in their canoe in extreme heat and cold and in storms that
sometimes capsized their boat. They were given little to eat.
Sometimes, they watched as the dead bodies of children and adults floated past their canoe
in the hazardous water. One day, Malik too died from drowning when he was made to dive
in to untangle nets. Bijoy begged his master to send him home as he was afraid he would die
too.
59 Arrow - English Plus-7
