Friday, April 19, 2024

Biography 202: VCR Era


In my childhood, a new culture grew in Bangladesh. We can call it VCR culture. People used to rent Video cassettes from a rental store to view movies at home. They kept a VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) at home to play the cassette. In every block, a new video cassette rental store is established. In school, students discussed what film they had viewed the day. One of my school friends, Falguni, said that every day from 9 pm was their movie time. After dinner, the whole family would stay together to watch movies.

My dad went to the mall to buy a VCR with his boss. This boss became our family friend; his family always attended our Eid and Birthday parties. My mom and dad visited their house, too. Mom said she had never seen such a neat and clean house. All credit goes to his wife. My dad became his friend because they both like to try new electronic items. So, when they went to buy a VCR, they came back with a VCP. Because it was new in the market and had sound technology and a remote.

Anyway, the VCP (Video Cassette Player) era started in our house. My dad used to bring all the cassettes. We used to watch movies according to his choice. I must inform you that most of the movies were Hindi. This VCR era taught me Hindi, which has become a good asset now, after all these years.

This era continued until the cable TV era started. Cable TV and multiple channels started one after another to support each other. People stopped renting cassettes; they could view movies and other programs on TV with a minimum monthly subscription. Technology changed. The video cassette store was turned into a VCD disk rental shop. That is also demolishing too. Nowadays, kids have no idea what a video cassette is.

On those days, I had performed a TV program. I danced. My father recorded the whole program. My sister's programs and many other recordings were at home. With time, all were destroyed. Now, we don't have any copies of that program.


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