Rain ruins Eid outing

Incessant rain has left parks and cinemas partially empty on Sunday, the day following Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival of Muslims. Usually, Eid celebration in metropolitan Dhaka means hundreds of thousands of people flocking to parks, cinema halls, and fast-food outlets on the 2nd day. But this year, it has been a different picture, says bdnews24.com. The weather office recorded 90mm of rainfall on Sunday, which was much more than on the day of Eid. A banker, Ayesha Siddika, scrapped her plan to take her children to a park. “We’re staying at home and watching television,” she said. The bdnews24.com correspondent saw no queue at the entry of Dhaka’s main children’s park in Shahbagh at about 3pm. Jakir Hossain, a staff, said they sold about 5,000 tickets on Sunday. “It could be even 50,000 if there was no rain,” he said. Shishu Mela, another children’s park at Shyamoli, was more crowded than the Shahbagh’s Shishu Park. Shishu Mela’s manager said they sold more than 12,000 tickets. “But it could have been over 30,000 had there been no rain,” he added. Amjad Hossain came to the park with all of his family from the Gulshan area. He braved the rain and took public transports to go to the park. “It’s difficult to keep children confined at home on such holidays,” he said. Taibur Rahman went to the Shahbagh park with his son and daughter in the morning. He was found him there even at 3pm. “It’s (visiting parks) part of Eid. If there was no rain, we would go to the museum, Lalbagh and many other places,” he said. It was a frustrating time for cinema halls as well. Like every year, this Eid, too, witnessed the release of new movies. But there was hardly any crowd in front of the halls. A ticket seller of Balaka Cinema Hall in Dhaka’s New Market area said they had managed to sell only about 250 tickets for the afternoon show. “Our capacity is more than 1,000,” he said. The Met Office forecast light to moderate rain and thunder showers accompanied by gusty wind at most places in Dhaka, Khulna, Barisal, Chittagong and Sylhet divisions in the next 20 hours ending at 6pm on Monday.