For the last 17 years, China Begum has been a constant source of joy for journalists and passersby outside Tangail Press-club.
She has been serving piping hot beverages to the weary and the tired without ever once complaining. When asked how she got to be here, the 40-year-old sweet woman answered with a silent resignation that it is her only means to support her family.
Her story is one we have all heard before, when China was a teenager in Kalihati upazila, her father Samad Fakir married her off to a man named Shahjahan. But within the space of two years, China gave birth to a baby girl and was soon abandoned by her husband.
Without any formal education or skills, China had to find a way to survive and feed her child, and this is how to came about owning a tea-stall.
She dreamt of a brighter future for her daughter Fatima, but as luck would have it, history repeats itself. Unable to fully support her financially, China married her off young to an expatriate worker.
Fatima’s husband abandoned her and their two daughters, early in the marriage and China now takes care of them.
Fatima now works as a saleswoman in the adjacent Sattar Shopping Mall to support her mother, while China runs her stall and takes care of the two granddaughters at the same time.
With a debt of Tk1.5 lakh, and countless other bills to pay, the family lives in a small room in Akurtakur area of the city.
China still dreams of a having a stall, and hopes her granddaughters will be educated and self-sufficient so they do not make the same mistake as hers.