Naogaon Correspondent:

It is possible to become self-reliant by doing small business even on the right path. Abdul Ghafur Khan started making sugar jhilapi from 2008 by opening a small shop in front of the road on the west side of the Upazila Kendiya Jame Samajid and Upazila Land Office, the heart of Atrai Upazila in Naogaon.

Md. Israfil Alam (17) used to come to the shop occasionally to help his father. Suddenly one day, Israfil's old father fell ill and his father could not come to the shop to make jhilapi. Israfil Alam's home is Atrai Upazila in Naogaon, and he was born in Madhuguroi village of Atrai Upazila. Since childhood, he had dreamed of studying in a good school and getting a government job. That dream has remained his dream.

Israfil Alam said, 20-25 years ago, his father started this business with a loan of only 30 thousand taka. At that time, I used to help my father. At one time, my old father fell ill and could no longer work. So I am running this business to support the family. Every morning, I go to the market to buy oil, flour, and sugar and start making jilapi from 3 pm and continue at a steady pace until 10 pm.

I sell four to five thousand taka every day. I have one thousand to twelve hundred taka every day, excluding the workers and all other expenses. I live at home with my mother, younger brothers and sisters, my wife, 2 children, and 1 daughter. There are expenses for my mother's treatment. I have to meet all my family expenses with the income from this business. I have sent my younger brother abroad with four lakh taka and my elder child with five lakh taka.

Most of my customers are government office officers and employees, schools, colleges, and local businessmen. I try to improve the quality of jilapi to retain customers. I cannot do so much work alone, so there are always two or three employees. Every week, there are about one and a half to two million jilapi orders.

My employees, who are working hard for me, have set up jilapi shops in the area, and they are all doing well with their families. I make three types of jilapi, silk jilapi for 300 taka, sombai jilapi for 200 taka and normal jilapi for 180 taka per kg. Finally, I want to say one thing to everyone, it is very easy for us who are educated with little education to manage our lives well as small businessmen like me instead of looking for big jobs and big businesses.

A regular customer of his shop asked businessman Md. Mofiz Uddin to ask him about the quality of his sugar jilapi. He told the journalist, I am a businessman in Sahebganj Bazar. I have been doing business with him for a long time. I come to eat his sugar jilapi and take it home for my family. I have not found any bad jilapi. In his shop.