Zahid got a job in a newspaper office for three months. He left home for the office, took a rickshaw, and got down at bus stand number fourteen in Mirpur. Upon getting down from the rickshaw, Zahid saw water being sprinkled on the road by tankers on the initiative of Our City Corporation due to the intense heat. The rickshaw puller said, “If the Creator doesn’t have mercy, will I go and reduce the heat?” Hearing this, Zahid gave a small smile. He seemed amused by the rickshaw puller’s comment.

Zahid is twenty-five years old and the only child of his parents. He lives in Tamai village of Sirajganj district but was born in Dhaka and grew up there since childhood. Zahid is very quiet and always prefers to keep silent. He talks very little, believing the saying, “Talk less, and you will have no enemies.” It has been almost two years since Zahid passed engineering. He got a job in a newspaper office through an elder brother when he couldn’t find a job even after several interviews.

A very senior journalist, who is the editor of Zahid’s newspaper, is a wise and talented person. Although Zahid had the habit of writing from childhood, he did not know how to write news. The editor taught Zahid everything by hand. The editor doesn’t only talk about news; he also talks about good things and reality. Zahid learned from his editor the meaning of life. One of the editor’s quotes: “After a while, when you are over forty, you will have no friends by your side. Then your work will be your only companion in life.” Zahid listens to the editor very attentively, almost mesmerized.

Zahid always tries to apply the editor’s words in his life. Sitting in the seat next to the window on the bus, Zahid sees a motorcyclist and a pedestrian arguing with each other as the bus stops at a signal. He thinks to himself, “Life in Dhaka, people quarrel with each other for trivial reasons.”

The bus starts moving again, and Zahid looks out the window, contemplating how people’s lifestyles and paths change with age. Friends, chats, and so many things are lost from life. He reminisces about a time when his friends would come to the dental area in the evening and gather together, chatting and listening to music, engaging in mischief. Now, everything seems to have been lost with time. Zahid thinks his editor might be right. Are his words true?

Lost in thought while looking out the window, Zahid is interrupted by the bus helper asking, “Brother, where will you get down?” Zahid suddenly says, “The cemetery.”