Finding CD-RW Disc in Dhaka

Finding compact discs has never been an issue for me. Even today when the usage of compact discs are all time low, I can still head towards the popular e-commerce site, search for the desired item or brand and simply place an order. On top, I can expect an estimated time-frame by when I should have the disc on my hand. So, the summary is, if you want any type of compact disc even today you can pretty much have it if you are living in the western hemisphere.

That is not how it works over here in Bangladesh though. I mean, I am currently staying in the capital city Dhaka yet I am finding it hard to get my hands on some sort of CD-RW discs. Forget about the brand. So, I reached out to some retailers who are in the business of selling computer accessories but they returned me empty handed. Heck, I have been to the BCS Computer City located in Agargaon and ECS Computer City in New Elephant Road only to get even more frustrated.

Eventually I found a retailer online who had the these discs of Verbatim brand. I would have preferred Sony, TDK or even Panasonic but alas! In any case, it seemed like the retailer have a store in Dhaka which is a bit far away from my location. I picked up my phone and call them up to check if they really those item in stock or not. They confirmed the stock and I placed the order right away. No, I could not buy single disc rather I had to buy the entire pack that had ten discs. I don't even know what to do with so many RW discs! Those CDs were fairly expensive and the price did not seem right to me but I barely had any choice at that point.

It took around four or five days to receive my discs. Talk about inconveniences. Then again, I was not in a hurry so I let that slide. Quite surprisingly, those discs were in pretty good condition. I took one out and started performing some test run by burning some random data using my portable drive. Performed a full erase and everything went smoothly. No complain with that.

What was particularly confusing or should I say disturbing for me was that when I looked at the disc information using MagicISO. The software showed that the disc was manufactured by Moser Baer which happens to be an Indian company that went bankrupt back in 2018. One can easily assume that these discs were made well before they went out of business. Simply judging by the numbers, these discs are at least eight to nine years old already. Now, I am thinking perhaps buying ten of them was not all that bad of an idea I suppose. Wish me luck with those.