When the city dwellers breathed a sigh of relief as the nuisance of blaring music or political speeches has been put on hold at least for the time being, loudspeaker businesses on the other hand cannot wait for the ban on politics to be lifted.

Many loudspeaker businesses such as Taj mic, Habib mic, Taranga mic or Call Ready mic turned into household names as these businesses have also been an integral part of our cultural festivities for over 50 years.

Such a dry spell has never been experienced by the sector in the past, said loudspeaker business owners.

"I have been in this business for around 55 years now, and I doubt if even my ancestors went through such a bad phase before," said Akhter Hossain of Taranga mic service.

The loudspeaker businesses usually long for the election season when they do brisk business. This year the sector has lost that opportunity when the January 22 election was postponed. Many of them have already shut down their businesses.

There were many loudspeaker rentals in the Nilkhet area, but Taj mic is the only surviving business in the area.

Rafiqul Islam, sales representative of Taj mike said that their current revenues are barely enough to pay the rent of the warehouses. The owner of the establishment has been paying the salaries of the technicians from his own pocket.

"As the political and social events are our prime source of income, the prohibition on political activities has been really dire for our business. Use of loudspeakers have also been missing in different public occasions such as May Day, Pahela Baisakh and Eid-e-Miladunnabi," said Islam.

"While Waz Mehfils and other religious events used around 18 to 20 loudspeaker before, they use only 2 to 3 loudspeakers these days," he added.

Number of public announcement service providers revealed that they managed to rent their loudspeakers out in a handful of occasions over the last few months.

Joynal Abedin, owner of Turag mike service said that their loudspeaker has been rented out only once in the last 6 months to announce a missing child.

According to sales representatives from Taher mike services, twice they leased their loudspeaker mikes for the announcement of Janaza prayers and for a wedding ceremony.

Talking to a number of public announcement service providers revealed that hefty investments of around Tk 3 to Tk 6 lakhs were contributed specifically for the period of election. A number of businessmen claimed that they have become penniless after investing virtually everything they had.

"I bought 3 new loudspeakers and around 20 coils of electrical wires to boost my public announcement system, along with an investment of around Tk 3 lakhs for the election period. Now I'm clueless on what I am supposed to do with all these," said Joynal Abedin.

Abul Kalam Azad, owner of Taj mike believes that the situation would improve once the ban on internal political activities is lifted.

"I am optimistic that this is just a phase and we would recover our losses once the government takes off the ban on political activities. We just have to be patient till then," said Abul Kalam Azad.