From bands to bathrooms, Monsur's tale

‘Blue Hornet’ was once a hugely popular music band in Chattogram. Monsur Hasan was one of the main members of the band.

An energetic young man back then, he used to sing and write songs for the band. His songs were always on the lips of youngsters back then.

That same Monsur is now the caretaker of a public toilet in the port city. He shared his life story with Prothom Alo.

Monsur Hasan got admitted in Chattogram’s Government Haji Mohammad Mohsin College in 1986. He got to meet some music enthusiasts there.

Together with them, he started listening to music of different bands from home and abroad. And he began to the dream of forming a new band of their own.

Within a short time, they turned that dream into a reality. In their sophomore year of college, Monsur along with five other friends started music band, ‘Blue Hornet’.

After finishing college, Monsur’s friends became even more active with the band. Monsur was a vocal artist as well as a lyricist back then.

They launched their first album in the beginning of the 90’s. Among the 14 songs of that album, three were Monsur’s. Those tracks titled ‘Batali Hiller Shei Bikel’, ‘Chotto Ekti Meye’ and ‘Sharati Raat’ became quite famous.

Some members of the band started writing songs, some composed the music, some used to sing while some others played the instruments. The years passed well for the new band.

Meanwhile, the time arrived for their higher secondary exams. However, Monsur couldn’t take the exams for various reasons and this caused a rift with his family.

Monsur is now 54 years old. Nowadays, he spends his days and night at a bus shelter in the Jamalkhan area of Chattogram city. He has been living at this passenger bus shelter for the past four years. At night, he curls up on a tiny bench there.

He is now in charge of the maintenance of two public toilets. Singing and writing songs or grooving on the guitar seem like stories from someone else’s life to him now.

Prothom Alo talked to Monsur at the bus shelter on 19 May. Ironically, the person that used to sing once, cannot even speak properly now. His words get jumbled and his memory betrays him.

He can hardly articulate a full sentence and fumbles midway. Still, Monsur shared some thoughts combing through his old memories.

He said the band included his friends Morshed, Selim and Rakib. Together, they all created a band of pop genre.

All the songs from their first album were original and gained popularity among audience. Many celebrated musicians also loved those songs and inspired them to make more music.

Monsur’s life is full of dramatic events. He made music, went to jail, chanted political slogans on the streets as well. Monsur said, since childhood he had been extremely stubborn as he was the only child of his parents.

He became involved in politics in the 90’s. He participated in the anti-Ershad movement too. But his parents, Abu Bakar Siddique and Rabeya Khatun didn’t appreciate his political involvement.

About 20 years ago, Monsur once spent almost a month in jail for getting tangled in a trouble concerning their family business.

Monsur was an avid pop music lover since childhood, but used to enjoy all types of music. Ranging from Indian classical music to rock and modern, he was familiar with almost all music genres.

Manna Dey is still his favourite. Songs of popular Bengali bands like Feedback and Souls also attracted him. Once, he used to engross himself in the tunes of popular Bengali rock group ‘Moheener Ghoraguli’.

He doesn’t get the chance to enjoy much music now but hums to himself whenever he feels like. He still recalls those songs from the good old days.

After coming out of the jail he became totally separated from his family. He even stopped visiting his family home in Rahmatganj. In the meantime, his parents died. Later, he never went back there.

Monsur took time to answer the question about where he stayed after leaving home. He said he left the band towards the year 1992 or 1993. After that, he wanted to start his own business but, failed.

He didn’t get married he spent his days roaming different parts of the city and slept on the streets at night. Sometimes, he could manage meals and sometimes he failed.

About four years ago, Monsur started overseeing the maintenance of the public toilets at Jamalkhan More area. He gets Tk 9,000 a month from this and survives solely on that money.

This man living on the streets is the same Monsur Hasan who was the vocalist of Blue Hornet band. This was discovered only last week.

After learning Monsur’s identity, Shaibal Das, councilor of Jamalkhan ward came to Facebook live with this former musician.

Many also posted on their Facebook wall out of nostalgia, seeing the singer of melodies like ‘Batali Hiler Shei Bikel’ or ‘Chotto Ekti Meye’ in such a miserable condition.

Shaibal Das said that Monsur Hasan is mentally unstable. He is being treated under the care of Panchanan Acharjee, assistant professor and head of the psychiatry department at Chittagong Medical College.

He added that physicians have done many tests on him. This popular artiste of the yesteryear now requires proper medical treatment. .