Regular at Ramna Park
Abdul Jabbar, originally from Chandpur, is quite poor and makes his living by singing Bandari style in Ramna Park. He draws a reasonable crowd and the people who come to listen seem to become instantly mesmerised when he starts to sing. His plays the instrument very professionally and his voice is so sweet it is difficult to understand why his music is not on the shelves of music stores.
Although he is quite unhappy at his current situation he points out that this was not always his fate in the past. However, he is not too worried as he feels that Allah will provide for his needs. He has five children, three girls from a previous marriage and a boy and a girl from the second marriage.
His singing career earns him 200-300 taka per day, which is less than £3. He laments that in recent times the number of people attending the park has experienced a decline and consequently his daily earning has also reduced.
Abdul Jabbar has been in Dhaka City for the last eight years and previously lived in other places within Bangladesh like Chittagong and Sylhet. It was while in Sylhet many years ago that he met a mad man at Shahjalal Mazar, who advised him to acquire an Ektara (one string) musical instrument and use this to make a living.
It has been sixteen years since he started to follow the mad man’s advice. His first Ektara base was made of Pumpkin, but the new one is a metal-based instrument. The current Ektara has already given him eight years of service and he feels that it will continue to provide him companionship for many more years into the future. He likes the environment of Dhaka City and feels that the city has been changing quite positively. People seem to have more money than before and they work harder than before. As it is no good being unemployed people seem to be more motivated to work and make a better future for themselves and their children.
Concerning the law and order situation within the city, Abdul Jabbar says that although most people complain that the situation is very bad, he has never witnessed any killings or violence, even though he spends a lot of time on the streets, both during the day and at night.
Abdul Jabbar’s favourite food is Puthi Shutki (dried fish) and Buyum fish. Previously he used top play sports and participate in other types of entertainments, such as going to the cinemas and listen to music.
