Kolkata: The crackling sound of the radio used to be synonymous with ‘Mahalaya’ dawn, when generations of Bengalis tuned in to listen to Birendra Krishna Bhadra’a timeless Mahisasuramardini. Once upon a time, the days leading up to ‘Mahalaya’ saw a surge of customers thronging the city’s radio repairing shops. This picture has totally vanished.
“We used to work till midnight before ‘Mahalaya’, now shops are almost empty even at this time,” said SK Maiuddin, the owner of a radio repair shop at Chandni Chowk, one of the city’s traditional hubs for radio repair.
He added: “I have been running this shop for 40 years, the market was already shrinking, the last 2 years have seen a sharp decline.” Another shop owner, Md. Nasim Khan stated: “We had to shift to other gadget repairs, as radio alone wasn’t sufficient to make ends meet.”
For younger audiences, the nostalgia is missing. The convenience of streaming Mahisasuramardini anytime has stripped away the uniqueness of waking before sunrise on ‘Mahalaya’ morning. As a result, the small community of radio repairers-once in high demand during this season-now finds its trade on the verge of extinction.
As Kolkata gears up for another Durga Puja, the city’s dwindling radio culture raises questions about what traditions survive and which ones fade into memory.