The Call Ready microphone that witnessed history

Trinath Ghosh recalled his father and uncle.

Moinul Hoque Chowdhurybdnews24.com
Published : 17 March 2017, 09:06 AM
Updated : 17 March 2017, 02:36 PM

He and his brothers now headed the family business they started many decades ago.

Their company, Call Ready, is a sound service based in Old Dhaka.

Its black-white labels, mounted on microphones, are familiar sights in Bangladeshi meetings and conferences.

One of the most iconic moments in the country’s history also included a Call Ready microphone.

Ghosh, on the 97th birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, remembered how his father and uncle held on to the microphone the company had set up for his rally at Dhaka’s Race Course Maidan on Mar 7, 1971.

The nation’s father had used it to address a sea of people that day. His fiery calls for the nation’s independence is immortalised in history. 

The Call Ready founders

They preserved the microphone and its stand like they were precious, said Ghosh.

“My father and uncle wanted to give it to Bangabandhu. But that dream didn’t come true. No one listened when we tried to give these to the government.

“But we still want these preserved.”

Call Ready has been around for seven decades. It has provided sound services for meetings and rallies in remote places and amid difficult circumstances.   

Two brothers set it up at Sutrapur’s Lakshmibazar.

Two more brothers helped them in their business. None of these Ghosh brothers – Dayal, Haripad, Gopal or Kanai – are alive.

Haripad’s four sons now run Call Ready. Among them Trinath was a director. Haripad passed away almost a

His uncle Kanai Ghosh died last year.

The Call Ready family now wants the mouthpiece from Bangabandhu’s most famous speech to be preserved in a museum.

Lights to sound

The brothers had inherited a cloth trade but they wanted to do more. So in 1948, they set up Arju Light house.

They rented out decorative lights and even gramophones. Arju Light House was soon the destination for people planning weddings and other events.   

With demand up, the brothers bought some loudspeakers from India. Haripad would himself assemble their hand-held microphone from different parts.
"It was a tumultuous time after Partition. It was a time for campaigns. Leaders and politicians needed microphones. So they changed the name of their business because the demand had shifted towards microphones," said Trinath.
It was Dayal Ghosh who came up with the name 'Call Ready'.
"His reason was that people rent our microphones to get their works done. So we should be ready when they call. So the name became Call Ready."
Another member of the Ghosh family, Subrato Ghosh, wrote more about the name on Facebook.
The company was first called 'I am always ready, on call at your service', according to him. The short form they used was ARJA Electronics. It was changed to 'Call Ready' after a few years.
The company by Haripad and Dayal earned a name for good service with a team of just 20 workers. Their brothers Gopal and Kanai also helped.

Call Ready was there in the meetings and rallies for the 1952 Language Movement, the United Front's movement in 1954, the six point movement in 1966, the 1969 mass uprising and election campaigns of 1970.

The Mar 7 rally

Bangabandhu had called Haripad and Dayal to his house in Dhanmondi, said Trinath.

He asked them to set up microphones at the Race Course Maidan for a mass rally to be held on Mar 7.

"They began working the day he called them. They hung speakers from tree branches and hid them under leaves so that they are not easily spotted."

The brothers did not care about being paid a labour fee for a rally of such significance, said Trinath.

"Carrying out what Bangabandhu said was the only important thing. My father had good relations with him so he would only take the rent fee. My father told me this."

'No one else'

"I'm so proud that Bangabandhu gave his speech using our sound system. Call Ready is everywhere in our nation's history," said Trinath.  

Call Ready director Trinath Ghosh

"That microphone and its stand are still here. No one else used it to give a speech after our country's independence."
The microphone Bangabandhu used for a speech after he returned home to a newly-liberated Bangladesh on Jan 10, 1971 was also by Call Ready.
"The Bangabandhu Museum has so many things that carry the memory of the nation's father. But no one ever asked about the microphone from the Mar 7 speech."
"We have preserved them. We will hand it over to the government if someone contacts us and promises to take good care of them."   
It irked Trinath that Call Ready was never officially recognised for the role it played during the political movements that shaped Bangladesh.  
"It demands a recognition, at least for the three days it worked for setting up the sound system for the Mar 7 rally and in such difficult circumstances. I have made this request to the prime minister."