<i>Baby receives name upon crew father's tearful return</i>
The baby being unnamed over three months into his birth was given a name yesterday upon the return of his father Main Uddin, second engineer of MV Jahan Moni, Monday.
Now the baby is Mohammad Araf Bin Main Uddin, the first child of Main Uddin and Sarjina Chowdhury Lisa of the village Jaldi in Banskhali upazila, Chittagong.
Main along with his wife and son reached his village home to meet his parents yesterday morning, and arranged a brief naming ceremony in the evening.
“We have not got any scope for arranging any formal programme like Akika since the villagers and my relatives keep coming to visit me all the day,” said Main.
Over phone, he also told The Daily Star that they called a Moulvi (religious leader) from the local mosque and named the baby.
Main's wife Lisa said she did not name the baby, as she was waiting for her husband to do it. “It is our first child so I cannot name him alone,” she said.
Araf was born on December 23 last year when Main along with 25 other crew of the ship MV Jahan Moni remained confined by Somali pirates after the hijack on December 5.
He was in dark about his son's birth for three days since the Somali pirates stopped contact with the ship's owner company officials for 11 days till December 26.
“I became so worried about my wife she her condition was in advanced stage but I could not make any contact,” said Main.
Upon request by all the crewmembers, the pirates allowed him to make a call, he said.
“At last they agreed and allowed only one minute for calling on the night of December 26 and thus I got to know the good news.”
Main said the news made him so excited that he forgot the sufferings of hunger, thirst, and skin diseases developed on him due to daily use of seawater.
All the crew confined in the bridge room of the ship greeted him at gunpoint of the pirates after getting the news, he said.
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