A cycle shop of 40–50 household items, Tk 500–700 in daily sales; three daughters married in 18 years

A 54-year-old peddler lives in a small rented room near Garuikhali bazaar in Paikgachha upazila, Khulna, while his wife and children stay in the family home in Kumarkhali, Kushtia. On a cycle he has fitted a bamboo-and-wood frame, from which he hangs colourful bowls, pitchers, toys, ribbons, hair clips and cosmetics packets: 40–50 kinds of goods, priced from Tk 10. Every day he sets out before dawn with fresh stock to some village in Koyra or Paikgachha, and he has been touring coastal Khulna for more than 30 years. Earlier, while living in Dacope, he sold printed cloth he brought from Pabna by cycle, but cloth shops sprang up everywhere and he had to change his trade. He has run this mobile shop for 18 years. Daily sales are Tk 500 to 700, which just gets the family by; on this income he married off three daughters. His son passed secondary school, learned electrical work and now works as a mechanic. For village women who want to go to market but cannot, his call brings the shop to their door for combs, powder and ribbons. The monsoon is the hardest part: pushing the cycle through mud and slippery roads is difficult, and he once fell at a ferry ghat and hurt his waist. Even when he falls, he says, he has never dropped the cycle or the goods.