In the face of Tk50 advance tax per person in excess of a hundred wedding guests in community centres was imposed, ostentatious brown parents started printing fewer invitation cards and passed off the guests as wedding crashers.
Some even took it as a leeway out of Bangali hospitality and did what we do best – class divide – between the elite few who got cards and the majority whom the hosts secretly wished wouldn’t show up.
But not everyone is the sharpest tool in the shed – least of all influencers.
One influencer couple, not-so-blissfully unaware of the new taxation law, announced bankruptcy after arranging an influencer-studded publicity stunt of a wedding.
However, turning their weakness, that very publicity, into strength, they promptly published a book in this year’s Ekushey Boi Mela to regain lost wealth.
TBS Graduates sat down with the esteemed authors 40-year-old Shakil Ibne Rashid (SIR) and 19-year-old Mehzabien Alom Mounota (MAM) to discuss their journey.
TBS: Your book, titled RMG 101, has a unique name. Can you elaborate on the subject matter of the book?
SIR: So, just last year, we started an online customised T-shirt business providing the best quality embroidery and it got pretty popular pretty fast. We know it wasn’t due to our pre-existing fame because only my wife Mounota posted on her account that it’s our venture. Now you may naturally think we don’t have the credentials to write a book on an industry we have been in only for only one year. Hence the 101 part, just like introductory courses in universities. I, as someone who taught millions behind the screen, believe you learn best from someone who had the same inherent dumbness and went through the same struggles as you. And that learning experience gets amplified when the person who’s teaching you is also learning right now. You cannot actually learn from a person who’s already at the top.
Hence, the best students make the worst tutors. That’s why I penned my experience as a novice entrepreneur, but not as a seasoned educator.
MAM: So, in this book-
SIR: Sure, we’ve had a recent drop in sales by around 20k last month, but that’s due to the hiatus during our wedding.
TBS: Dropped by 20k from…how much?
SIR: Not important.
TBS: Alright. So, your marketing strategy for launching this book was quite unique, I must say. You got your influencer friends to point out the hypocrisy or obvious issues with your credentials. Self-awareness is a virtue. How do you plan to act on it?
SIR: What do you mean? Acknowledging my problems isn’t enough? Self-awareness is rare enough that the mere act of acknowledgement gives you a pass to continue with your hypocrisy.
TBS: Sure….What do you have to say to those who have one glance at influencer-written books and comment that there is a famine of taste in Boi Mela nowadays?
MAM: We believe we disseminate valuable information –
SIR: …to the masses.
MAM: Let me speak. In this book, there are things T-shirt businessmen face but never talk about. We discuss the tricks of having RMG workers work long, productive hours as well as manipulation hacks with buying houses. My husband is a successful educator. I am also in this field. Yet, we chose not to repackage English or Chemistry notes as cheat sheets and pollute the sacredness of Boi Mela publishing those.
SIR: And those of you elitists saying there is a famine of taste, go to Lit Fest instead. Wait, there isn’t any haha. Not that you’d be able to afford the ticket anyways, with how you click photos at Boi Mela and then buy books from Nilkhet. Well, I’ve got news for you buddy. The rickshaw you take from Boi Mela to Nilkhet costs the same as the price difference of the books.
A few moments of silence ensued. It was nearing the closing time of the fair. So, we posed the final question – ‘How has it been going so far, halfway through? Good enough for us to expect an RMG 102 next time?’
MAM: The responses have been great, honestly. We managed to recover from our bankruptcy and are projecting double the money within the 25th day. My Facebook Ads expert, and also finance enthusiast influencer friend, suggested that we invest the excess in repurposing our book into a pre-recorded video course at dirt-cheap rate on his website-
SIR: …So we did the most logical thing: Investing in our own business of “Gatekeeper Bridesmaids for Hire” service in community centres to extract the tax from the groom. The bridesmaids will be experts of manipulation and subliminal messaging trained by our very own in-house influencers. We are planning to go on Shark Tank.
No sooner had Shakil finished the sentence than an agitated voice yelled from the back,
Unknown: Hey! What’s the Bangla of Tank!?