A homemaker and mother of two who lives close to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka recalled how the sound of a helicopter flying over her building on Monday morning broke the silence of the curfew.

The roads in the Uttara neighbourhood in Dhaka had been empty since morning.
A few minutes later, when she saw a deluge of people taking to the streets, she realised the helicopter that had flown overhead a few moments earlier carried the country’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Gulrukh Tasneem Hussain, 48, and her two children live in a top-floor apartment of a five-storeyed building in Sector IV of Uttara.

She shared with Metro how life for her and her children had been for the past few days.

There was complete silence in our neighbourhood this morning because of the curfew. There was nothing on the news channels either.

I had heard that a march was scheduled to Gana Bhaban (the Bangladesh prime minister’s residence) but everything was quiet till around 11.30am.

Then I heard the whir of a helicopter overhead. The movement of helicopters has been common these days. So that, too, did not ring a bell.

A few minutes later, suddenly there was a lot of noise and I saw people — men and women — hitting the roads. There were hundreds of thousands of people. They were marching and rejoicing.

Later, I saw some of my neighbours post pictures of themselves on Facebook. They had also joined the march.

I realised that something big had happened. It had. The prime minister is likely to have left the city in that helicopter.

Around 12.30pm, all the television channels were beaming happy faces, people cheering and thronging the roads. Then came the news that the Bangladesh army chief was about to make an announcement.

There were announcements on TV. They were saying “dhoirjjo dhoren (have patience)”. We understood things are going to change now.

The past few weeks have been suffocating.

My children’s schools were open and shut. Banks were shut. Vegetable prices were soaring. The poor people were having an even more difficult time.

There have been incidents of bullets flying. Two of my neighbours told me that bullets had flown into their homes. They were lucky no one was hurt. I had been keeping my windows closed after hearing that.

Today also there were gunshots in my neighbourhood. I saw some uniformed men on the flyover over Jashimuddin Avenue at that time.

I just want things to be normal again. After today, I am hopeful something good will emerge from this.