Every morning, 70-year-old Sekandar Ali dusts off his old, black typewriter before placing it on a rickety wooden table on the Dhaka Judges Court premises.
The machine has lost its shine and the keys are stiff, yet to Sekandar, the clacking still sounds like music.
鈥業 have been typing here since 1975,鈥� he says, loading a blank sheet of paper. 鈥楤ack then, this place was abuzz with the sound of typewriters. We worked from morning till evening, typing affidavits, contracts and applications. Now, hours pass without a single client.鈥�
Before 2010, Sekandar earned around Tk 1,000鈥�1,200 a day. Now there is hardly any work. Too old to start anew, he still takes small jobs whenever they come.
Sekandar is among the few who cling to their ageing machines, quietly resisting the march of technology. They are the last of Dhaka鈥檚 street typists.
Once the heartbeat of offices and courtrooms, the typewriter has all but disappeared in today鈥檚 digital world. For those who made a living from it, the change has been straining. Many have switched professions; others, unable to adapt, remain at their tables, waiting for clients who rarely come.
Only five typists still work on the court premises. The Dainik Bangla crossing has four more, there are two opposite the Press Club and just one under the Farmgate bridge. Some spend idle hours; others scrape by with a few odd jobs.
There was a time when rows of typists sat under the shade of trees near courts, land offices, city corporation buildings and Rajuk Bhaban. Today, no young typists are to be found, only middle-aged and elderly men holding on to a fading craft.
鈥業鈥檝e worked here for 20 years,鈥� says Diman Pal, another court typist. 鈥榃e had respect before computers came. Then photocopiers and computers arrived and our work began to vanish. Now I make barely Tk 200鈥�300 a day, sometimes nothing.鈥�
Mohammad Alamgir, who began typing at the Dainik Bangla crossing in 1992, tells a similar story. 鈥極ur profession is almost extinct. There may be no one left after us. One day, typewriters will exist only in museums and books,鈥� he says.
Typists were once indispensable in government and private offices. Hiring often depended on typing speed 鈥� 45 words a minute in English and 30 in Bangla. While some government offices still keep old machines in corners, typewriters have vanished from the private sector.
