Pen drive full of movies and more for Tk800: How Dhaka lived internet blackout

A small crowd had gathered around a hole-in-the-wall stationery shop, housed in a decrepit looking building near the Zakir Hossain Road in Mohammadpur.

More people rushed there, hoping that the server had finally opened for customers to recharge their electricity meter cards.

But this was not the case. A closer look revealed a small sign hanging just above a banner advertising a mobile financial service operator: "Tk800 for pen drive. 8,000+ songs and movies".

This discreet sign was the cause of the hullabaloo, drawing a noticeable crowd, mostly comprised of youths.

The seller had positioned himself on a small chair right outside the shop.

The pen drives he was selling were used, but he assured that it had gone through a full virus scan.

On how he could accommodate so many songs and videos in a single pen drive, he said the 8,000 figure was just a "hook".

"Tk800 for 8,000," he said with a full smile, his eyes twinkling. 

"It can be customised," Zaker, the seller, said, adding people were negotiating and also bringing their own memory cards.  

Asked how many such pen drives this new digital disruptor had, he meekly replied it was around 10.

"All the local boys know I am doing this. By the time I have sold a few, they would already exchange among themselves," he said.

While Zakir may have been one of the few to turn a profit with pen drives amid the countrywide internet blackout, the use of the small devices had grown exponentially in the last few days.

Azfar Hussain, a resident of Lalmatia, was on his way to a friend's house in Dhamondi amid the break in nationwide curfew yesterday.

"One of the ISP's server came online yesterday. I asked my friend to download a few shows for me, so I am going to collect it now," he said.

Elsewhere in Lalmatia, 8-year-old Numair Ahmed was busy browsing Youtube videos in his home.

Speaking over the telephone, he said he had been downloading videos for a long time.

"Whenever I like a video, I download it. Because if there's no electricity, I can't watch it anymore," said the 8-year-old.

In three different phones, Numair claimed to have amassed a collection of 700 videos.

Like Numair, many others had dusted off their old download folders and began consuming those amid the internet disruption plaguing the country since Thursday night.

Aside from a spike in interest in pen drives, many shops also observed an increase in demand for wired earphones.

Most shops were fast running out of such earphones, especially in the Tk150-300 range.

This was down to people wanting to listen to the radio on their phones, for which wired headsets are required, as those serve as antennaes.

It seemed, the nation – deprived of the internet – were information and entertainment hungry.

Street cricket could only go so far.

Even newspapers were seeing a revival of sorts, harkening back to their glory period.

In some districts, prices of newspaper had doubled and tripled. A copy of The Business Standard, for instance, priced at Tk15, was being hawked for Tk30.  

Most hawkers warned customers to come by 10am. After that, there would be no newspapers left.

There was also an increased demand for cable connections, considered a relic in the Youtube, Netflix driven era.

When Bushra Ashfeen, a resident of Gulshan, called her operator to get a cable connection, she was told it wouldn't be possible at the moment.

"I am a VIP again, madam. Please wait until tomorrow," her operator told her.

For now, Smart Bangladesh was smarting. But its people, resilient in any circumstances, were finding new ways once again.