I showed you recently the chocolate man, following this and showing you how resilient and inventive Bangladeshi's can be to earn a living, here the music-man.
The small instruments that he holds are handmade of course, a small cardboard tube, cut to size, pasted with coloured paper, a soft metal pin is inserted and fastened at the base, a string attached. As you whirl the tube faster and faster a sound is made, a warbling bird, a revved up car, a high pitch note. I have no idea how long each one takes to make, probably not so long for a man with his experience. But he sells them for 5 Thaka. (100 thaka = 1 Euro). On a normal day he would go to the park or wait by schools, but today is Shakrain Festival, (the kite festival) which is celebrated in old Dhaka, on January 15, children are treated to not only kites, but balloons and candy floss and he hopes a whirling tube.
We buy 10 from him, we give 8 away as we walk the streets during Shakrain, and 2 we take home to give to our granddaughters. 11 people happy for 50 euro cents.