Everyone is bidding for a big bagair fish. The seller has asked Tk 1 lakh 20 thousand. Among the buyers, a son-in-law named Alamgir Hossain Bhuiyan is offering at most Tk 60,000, but the seller will not give way, and the haggling goes on. Far more curious onlookers than buyers crowd round to see the fish. This was the scene from morning to midday yesterday, Wednesday, the second day of the month of Magh, at the traditional fish fair in Binirail village, which lies between Jamalpur, Baktarpur and Jangalia unions of Kaliganj upazila in Gazipur.

Although it is now known as a fish fair, it has long been known as the "jamai mela" (sons-in-law's fair), and the day is marked with all kinds of festivities. Local people and the organisers say that although it is a sons-in-law's fair, a huge fish market is held here. The men who have married into Binirail and the villages around it are the fair's main buyers and visitors. The fair also sparks a quiet competition among the local sons-in-law: which of them can buy the biggest fish and take it to his in-laws' house.

People came not only from all over the upazila but from beyond it to the upazila's biggest fish fair. Many travelled to Kaliganj for the fair from Gazipur, Tangail, Narayanganj, Narsingdi, Bhairab, Kishoreganj and Mymensingh. The fair is held every year to mark Poush Sankranti. This year more than 500 fish traders set out their displays of fish.

Nurul Islam, president of the fair's organising committee, said the Binirail fish fair, which began in British times, has now become a tradition. Abu Bakar Siddique, a son-in-law of the area, said: "It is about taking fish to your in-laws' house, after all."

Source: Prothom Alo. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.