“My father died five years ago of cancer, but I did not realise anything as I was taking drugs at that time,” said Alvi Nur, an executive accounts officer at the Continental Insurance Company.
He was talking to the Dhaka Tribune this Saturday about how he started taking drugs and then luckily escaped its wrath.
Alvi said: “I was part of a happy family of five. My father, Dr Rayhan Fazlur Nur, who died in 2008, was a Medicine specialist. My mother, Sayeda Maksuda Alam, is a professor at the Tejgaon College.
He completed his masters’ degree in 2010 from UK and honours from United International University (UIU) at Dhanmondi. His elder brother, Adnan Nur, is a citizen of the UK while his younger sister, Afrin Nur, is an O-level student.
Alvi started taking drugs after being influenced by one of his cousins, Nasik Ajgar Kabir, back in 2004, and started off with smoking cigarettes.
Shortly after, he started taking heroine and yaba tablets with the help of his cousin and some so called “younger brother” at the university. He was buying drugs from the Agargaon BNP slum, but later started taking home deliveries through a drug trader named Moynal.
Alvi said, they would order Moynal over mobile phone and buy drugs worth Tk500 every day or more. The amount would go up during occasions and his mother would provide the amount.
He said: “Though my mother would give me the money, but she would always break into tears, which had no effect on me. I was like an animal and I would use bad language with my family members.”
"Finally, in January of 2013, my mother after seeing an advertisement on a national daily, called 'Apon,' a rehabilitation centre for my treatment. They took me under their care, and gradually, I started moving away from the curse of taking drugs."
"At the primary stage, it was intolerable for me but with every passing day I started feeling a lot better and now, I feel that I have come out of the dark world successfully."
Alvi said: “I believe that everything depends on personal will and drug addicts can do anything to save themselves. I wish that no one will step into the world of drugs.”
