BENAPOLE, June 04 (UNB): In the heart of Jashore's Sharsha upazila, a symphony of hammers plays out across Navaron Rail Market amid the heat and haze of coal-fired forges.
As Eid-ul-Azha looms on the horizon, the blacksmiths of this once-sleepy marketplace have entered their busiest season, an annual crucible of fire, faith and sheer physical endurance.
Here, where iron meets flame and tradition melds with necessity, the artisans labour ceaselessly to craft the indispensable tools of Qurbani, the sacred ritual of animal sacrifice.
Knives, machetes, choppers, and cleavers, each meticulously shaped by hand, gleam like polished silver under the dim glow of furnace light.
The market is alive with an intensity found nowhere else in the calendar year. The clatter of steel on steel rings through narrow alleyways, echoing the devotion etched into every blacksmith's soot-streaked brow. Inside smoke-filled workshops, orange embers flicker like fireflies in the gloom, casting light on the sinewy figures hunched over anvils.
Exhaustion hangs thick in the air, yet the craftsmen work with unwavering resolve. From the first blush of dawn to well past midnight, the rhythm never breaks. Eid brings with it not just spiritual fulfilment, but also the hope of a financial reprieve for these hardworking souls.
"We wait all year for this season," says Robiul Islam, president of the Navaron Rail Market Blacksmith Association. "But it's not as profitable as it once was. Prices for iron and coal have soared, but we dare not raise the rates for our customers. People are already struggling." A large-quality sacrificial knife, he shares, now costs between Tk 500 and Tk 600. Smaller blades fetch Tk 150 to Tk 200, with larger machetes and choppers priced at Tk 400 to Tk 500 and Tk 300 to Tk 400 respectively.
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