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MICROPHONE BUSINESS

Operators look to sunny days

Sohel Parvez
Microphone operator joynal Abedin seldom takes part in political gossips. Even today, his interest in political affairs appears diminutive although Bangladesh is all set to return to democracy after the caretaker government's two-year rule.
If somebody speaks to him about 1971, the year of Liberation War, it piques the 55-year-old mad's interest.
Enthused, a greying Abedin starts sharing the glorious experiences he gained after signing up as a microphone operator at age 20.
"I was present on the day ASM Abdur Rob hoisted our national flag at Kala Bhaban (Arts Building) at the University of Dhaka on March 2, 1971," said an excited Abedin with a flash of delight in his eyes.
He says he stood beside Rob when he had hoisted the flag emblazoned with Bangladesh's map.
“It was a huge gathering of students chanting slogans. And the meeting was covered by only two microphones,” recalls the operator, who is now in charge of Royal Mike Service at Kataban in the capital.
During the movements such as a mass upsurge in 1969 and against military ruler HM Ershad in the 1990s, Abedin and other microphone operators had tough time maintaining schedule. Sometimes they did not get time for refreshment or had to cut sleeping hours.
"Microphone business hit the peak during the movements of 1969 and 1980s. In those days, we had a little time to spare.”
Operators say high demand for microphones during the rule of Ershad encouraged an increase in the number of mike service providers. Traders fared quite well thanks to elections in 1991,1996 and 2001 as well as political and cultural programmes.
“But the last two years of emergency have hurt our business," says elderly Mohammad Nazir, who has been working for 40 years as an operator at Taj Mike Service, the third biggest mike service provider after Call Ready andTaher.
The mike services went into the red after the enforcement of state of emergency on January 11, 2007, which put freezes on political activities. The emergency was withdrawn on December 17.
The last resort to stay afloat was reli-
gious programmes and various social festivals such as marriage and picnic. But the earnings from these programmes were insignificant although some micro phone operators incorporated modern sound systems to survive.
Associated businesses also bore the brunt.
The result: Shutdown of business of many small mike service providers, job cuts and indebtedness.
“I had six microphone systems of my own But I sold ail out due to a slump in business," says Abdul Karim who now works for Royal Mike Service as an opera tor.
Karim should have been happy after the withdrawal of state of emergency ahead of the parliamentary elections on December 29 as demand for microphone increased in (he last two weeks.
But he is not so, as the Election Commission kept some restrictions on campaigns and opening of more than one camp in a ward.
"We saw many camps in a ward in the past elections. Now there is only one camp in each ward and campaigning by microphone is limited from 2pm to 8pm,” he says while waiting for a call.
Now demand is rising, however slightly.
"But it is tough to cover three to four big meetings a day In the previous elections, we had a space of two to three days before any meeting," says Taslim Uddin Babla, owner ofTaher Mike Service, hav ing around 400 microphone systems.
Taslim says he has so far been able to serve a total of six meetings since the election campaign began.
Sagor Ghosh, who runs the country's biggest microphone service Cali Ready Mike Service, expects a rebound in the business after elections, as there will be no bar on political activities.
"Our business is driven mainly by political activities. We survived on religious and social festivals in the last two years as our revenues dropped by almost 80 percent during the state of emer gency," says the owner of Call Ready, having over 500 microphone systems.
“I hope our business will improve after election."
Abul Kalani Azad, managing partner of Taj Mike Service, also believes that a return to democracy would help them recover loss.
sohel@thedailystar.net