Bent with age and lacking the brisk movement of his youth, 80-year-old Mokbul Hossain refuses to surrender to the hardships of life. As dawn breaks, he sits down to work with bamboo, a hammer, chisel, and rope. Hailing from Shrichandrapur village in Dinajpur's Ghoraghat upazila, the elderly man's life story is a relentless battle of labor and survival.

Having raised and married off his children after spending a lifetime fulfilling familial responsibilities, Mokbul now finds himself running from market to market just to support his elderly wife and himself. To him, old age is not a time for rest, but a daily battle for livelihood.

For nearly a decade, Mokbul has been crafting beds out of bamboo and rope to sell in various local markets. Traversing rural paths, he often sets up his handmade beds by local markets or roadside areas waiting for buyers. Making beds in various sizes, these few humble materials remain his sole means of survival.

Mokbul Hossain shares that it takes him three to four days to build a single bed. Purchasing bamboo, rope, and other necessary materials costs between 800 and 1,000 BDT, after which he sells the finished bed for 1,200 to 1,500 BDT. This means his earnings amount to only a few hundred takas after days of hard labor.

However, beds do not sell every day. Some days bring good buyers, while other days see him returning home empty-handed without a single sale. Yet, stopping is not an option. Ignoring the sun, rain, or physical exhaustion, he gets back to work the next day.