Poverty cannot be a barrier for Mohammad Sagor. With steely willpower aided by talent Sagor, a tea boy precisely, has risen to being the runner-up in the just-concluded 33rd National Junior Chess Championship (NJCC).
“From my early age, I always dreamt to be either a football or a cricket player, but the coaches did not allow me in the camps as I was unable to attend six days a week. In fact, I attended my tea stall for six days,” Sagor said.
“Then I decided to dedicate myself in playing chess after being encouraged by some people who used to play the game near my tea stall.”
Sagor runs a tea stall at the office building of Sonali Bank’s Magura branch with the help of its manager as he allowed him a small space on the first floor. His customers are merely the office staff of the bank and neediness is a great obstacle to him, yet he secured the second position in the NJCC for the second year running. In 2010, he became the runner up in the Standard Chartered Bank School Chess.
Apart from achieving glorious results in the national chess competitions, he also won district level championships in Magura for six times from 2006 to 2011.
“I have to earn all the expenses of my daily life including chess playing from this small tea stall,” Sagor said.
However, poverty is setting in to get the better of talent for Sagor under hardship as at the end of long-tiring working hours, both his body and mind don’t permit him any practice.
“Due to tiredness I am not practising in the evening these days. I always look for few minutes’ off to play the game in between serving my customers,” he said.
Son of late Musab Ali at Sahapara area of the district town, Sagor could not sit for his SSC exams in 2011 as his father did not leave behind any asset for his children including Sagor.
It’s now very essential for Sagor to have a laptop for practising chess. He did have one, but was mugged in the bus when he was travelling to Magura from Dhaka after participating in the National “B” Chess Championship last month. “Buying another computer is beyond my reach,” Sagor rues.
As his father died about 15 years back and his mentally-challenged mother died in 2010, he depends on his tiny shop for his living as his lone elder brother and his wife do not give him any support. His two sisters have been married off. He passes his nights in a tin-shed room built with his own earnings from his tea stall, he said.
