Diarist 36 is one of our most colourful. He has the ingenuity of Diarist 10 but is more organised and ambitious. He is at heart a devoted cattle raiser but will try his hand at anything else that comes his way. He is very sociable, and attended secondary school, and this has allowed him to become friends with some influential people despite his humble origins in the Hrishipara settlement where he still lives, with his wife and younger son, in a small old house on the edge of the river, overlooking the meadows where he grazes his cows. Over the years he used his farm earnings to invest in other people's shops, and to do a little informal pawnbroking. His father-in-law, on his deathbed, requested Diarist 36 to 'look after' his son, and Diarist 36 found a way to get this brother-in-law to Singapore where he has prospered. He is happy to buy up assets and put them to good use: an old rickshaw, even a disused rice mill. He has also bought and sold land. During the Covid lockdown, when transport was curtailed, he bought up, at very low cost, perishable food from local farmers that would normally be shipped to Dhaka, and sold it on the roadside outside the Hrishipara settlement.
In early 2020 he started on a new plan, to get his son to Canada. He put the son through a severe educational regime, and though things were held up by Covid, the son reached Canada on a student visa in 2022 and has since gained residence rights there and found a job. The son now remits, and Diarist 36 and his wife are planning a holiday trip to Canada to visit him.
Diarist 36, though by no means addicted, likes to drink alcohol and smoke ganja (marijuana) occasionally, and this has got him into trouble. He has paid bribes to the police to keep them at bay while smoking with friends.
