Weekend Plus
Is rehabilitation to be acceptable?
By
Thu, 28 Jun 2007, 13:12:00

"It's a journey to me which is connected with my inner self. I have experimented with drugs too in my life. I just wasn't satisfied during my first work & something kept pushing me to go back and be with them again. Something really makes me feel close to them. Whenever I go there, I don't feel like coming back easily. I feel like a part of them .A few gives me their land phone number, just to say hello from them to their family and some ask for my number so they can contact me after they leave."

"I have seen a lot of drug cultures - people involved in Drug Trafficking, 15 year old kids taking drugs, rag pickers delivering heroin to the son of a business tycoon in the corner of a street, people who are elites of the society."

Yuba, the Thai word for "crazy medicine," is a tablet form of methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant, which can be home serviced by dealers in Dhaka.

I met doctors, lawyers, engineers, students, husbands, dads, brothers and made friends with them during my documentary project in the Rehabilitation Centre.
Many were abused similar to being raped. Some had to resort to stealing to buy drugs.
One man told me he always felt bad when he saw his cousin brother driving Nissan Petrol, but he couldn't afford any. He sold drugs too for earning a lot of money, but couldn't save up.
Many of them could never accept the fact their parents were divorced and had remarried, and they found it difficult to face the society.

One day while I was shooting, a guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted to see something, I said yes. He told me to follow him. When we went to his room he to take out a "Ghugu" from the wardrobe and told me he likes tending to birds. He got the bird from the garden; it had fallen from the tree. Few days later when I went back again, I tried to look for him and asked how the bird was. He told me the bird has died. I asked how it happened.
He spoke the following words, "Birds cannot be caged, it wanted to fly, and the wings got caught into the sharp net steel. The bird bled and died. When I had found the bird, it was small and didn't know how to eat. If it knew, it could have lived."

Another addict told me he is in love with gardens and his favorite flowers are white and yellow roses. He doesn't like anything untidy but clean and organized.

Questions? If you know a person is/was an addict, will you be giving him a job in your Office? One told me not to take his picture, I asked why, he replied, "I will be getting married soon, if they know, I won't be able to marry." Another person said "Everyone has to see, has to know or else how would I get cured?"

Photos & Text: Gazi Nafis Ahmed


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