OLD GUILDFORDIANS
Every cloud has a silver lining – a story of gratitude
by (Jimmy Attanasio)
Mohammed
Zamal Hossain
(He 1998-2002)
My background
I was born in Bangladesh in a family of
three brothers and one sister; I was in the
middle. My father was the sole breadwinner
making the money for the family as a tailor
and my mum was at home minding us
handful of kids and making the shack we
lived in feel like a home.
Unfortunately my Father passed away
suddenly when I was about 5 or 6 years
old. To be truthful I’m not certain how old
I was as we didn’t keep records or birthday
information, nor did we have the luxury of
celebrating them, as birthdays were really
only celebrated by the rich. Aside from the
devastation that rose from the death of my
Father, it also meant that we had no one to
provide for the family. My eldest brother (only
by a couple of years) and I set off to find any
work we could and my mum made Saris (a
traditional Bengali dress) at home to sell.
My memories right now appear to be
somewhat hazy; however, my memories of
struggle (just to be able to afford food each
day) for my family are still vivid to this very
day and something I will never forget.
The saying “every cloud has a silver lining”
couldn’t be any more true for me. It was
during one of these working days when I
was exploring the streets of Dhaka (that’s
the capital city of Bangladesh) that I met an
English lady, who was just leaving her house
to go to work. I stopped by to say hello
with a big grin on my face and the smile
apparently won her heart.
Over time - a few weeks turned into a few
months - this generous lady took me into
her house, spoke to me (although I didn’t
understand a word of English), fed me and
sometimes even provided groceries to take
back to my family. She even arranged for me
to attend school so that I could get a proper
education