On Wednesday evening, Kajal Pare was sitting in his mess in Rajshahi when his phone rang. A friend was calling. “The results are out.”
Kajal opened the website and began going through the list. He searched for his roll number until, suddenly, he stopped. His name was there.
Kajal, 29, had been provisionally recommended for appointment as a civil judge, or assistant judge, through the 18th Bangladesh Judicial Service examination. Of the 200 candidates on the list, he ranked 140th.
For a young man from Madhai, a village in Gomastapur upazila of Chapainawabganj, the result carried the weight of considerably more than just a public service examination.
Kajal belongs to the Turi, a small ethnic community found in Bangladesh and parts of eastern India. Pare is a surname used within the community.
His father owns no farmland. His elder sister once sold a cow to help finance his education. When Kajal entered university, he did not even have adequate clothes for the winter.
He paid his way through university partly by tutoring other students. And before his name appeared on the judicial service list on Wednesday, he had tried twice before. Both times, it had ended in disappointment.
By the time Kajal returned from Rajshahi on Thursday afternoon, the news had travelled ahead of him. Students in Madhai were waiting with flower garlands.
As he reached home, they gathered around to welcome him. His mother, Panchami Jeri, and elder sister, Kalpana Pare, were there with him. It was a celebration in a village where everyday life is largely tied to agriculture and physical labour.
Most people in Madhai depend on farming. Many work as day labourers. Kajal grew up in a household familiar with both.
His father, Naresh Pare, is a landless farmer. Over the years, he has dug earth and worked as a day labourer to support his family. Now his son is waiting to enter the judiciary.
For Madhai village elder Niranjan Tirki, Kajal’s achievement matters beyond the Pare household.
“He studied despite facing many hardships from childhood,” Niranjan told Daily Waadaa. “His success will encourage other boys and girls in the village.”
The distance between Madhai and a judge’s bench can perhaps be measured most clearly by what happened in 2017. That year, Kajal secured admission to the Department of Law at Rajshahi University.
Getting into the university should have been the difficult part.
Instead, another problem immediately presented itself: the family did not have enough money to pay his admission fee.
His parents looked for help. His maternal uncle, other relatives and friends contributed whatever they could.
His elder sister helped with money from selling a cow. Eventually, the family put together enough to send him to university. Even then, Kajal arrived without some of the things most students would consider ordinary.
He did not have adequate winter clothes. Those days have returned to him since the judicial service results were published.
The years since university admission had put some distance between Kajal and the young student worrying about where his fees would come from.
Seeing his name on the list brought those years back.
Talking with Waadaa, Kajal said that he needed to cover his own education and living expenses while his family back in Madhai had little capacity to support him.
“So I began tutoring,” he said, adding that his days settled into a routine: classes in the morning, private tuition in the afternoon and his own studies at night.
He also helped his family when he could. It was during those years at the law department that an ambition began to take shape. He wanted to join the judiciary.
Kajal told Waadaa that he had dreamed of becoming a member of the judicial service since entering the law department in 2017. “Getting the degree brought me closer. But passing the exam was a tough task.”
He failed on his first attempt. Then he tried again. The second attempt did not produce the result he wanted either. He returned to his books. There was a third examination to prepare for. This time, his name was on the list.
Back in Madhai, Naresh Pare speaks about his son’s with pride in his voice.
“By the Creator’s blessing, he has got the job of a judge,” Naresh told Waadaa. “I was very happy when I heard the news.”
Naresh has spent much of his working life doing the kind of labour that offers few guarantees at the end of a day. He owns no agricultural land. He has worked as a day labourer and dug earth for a living.
“I want my son to work for the welfare of the land and its people and to properly carry out the responsibility he has been given,” he said.
Kajal is not yet a civil judge. A total of 200 candidates have been provisionally recommended for civil judge, or assistant judge, positions through the 18th Bangladesh Judicial Service examination.
They must still complete the prescribed procedures, including medical examinations and police verification, before final appointments are made.
“I can’t wait to start my work,” he told Waadaa, with a big smile
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