The Chanda Calculator – Mixing Satire with Code

Every so often, a project comes along that’s less about solving a complex technical problem and more about making a statement. The Chanda Calculator is one of those projects. It’s a satirical web application I built to poke fun at the political culture of forced “donations” (চাঁদা) in Bangladesh, a topic that’s both culturally relevant and ripe for humor.

This blog post breaks down the journey of creating this app, from the initial spark of an idea to the technical challenges and the final, shareable product.

The Idea: When Politics Becomes a Punchline

In Bangladesh, the word “chanda” often carries a negative connotation of extortion or forced contributions, frequently associated with political parties. Recently, this topic became a point of public discourse, with accusations and memes flying around social media. Seeing the humor in this, I was inspired to create something that could capture the absurdity of the situation.

The core idea was simple: what if there was an “official” tool to calculate one’s “mandatory” contribution to a political party? The app would need to look serious and professional to enhance the satire, making the ridiculous output even funnier. The target was the narrative of the “BNP Chandabaj Dol,” a phrase that had gained traction online.

Project Goals

I set out with a few clear goals:

1. Create a Viral, Humorous Experience: The primary goal was to make people laugh. The application needed to be funny, easy to use, and highly shareable.
2. Build a Modern, Responsive UI: To make the satire effective, the app couldn’t look like a joke. I aimed for a clean, dark-themed, and fully responsive interface using modern web technologies.
3. Implement a Unique Feature: The ability to download a PDF “receipt” of the calculated chanda was the key feature. This tangible, shareable artifact would complete the satirical loop.

The Tech Stack: Bringing the Joke to Life

I chose a modern, efficient tech stack to build the single-page application:

• Framework: Next.js (React) was the perfect choice. It offers a fantastic developer experience, server-side rendering for fast initial loads, and great SEO capabilities.
• Styling: Tailwind CSS allowed me to rapidly build the custom, professional-looking UI. Its utility-first approach is perfect for creating responsive designs without writing custom CSS files.
• PDF Generation: This was the most interesting technical challenge. I used a combination of two libraries:
  • html2canvas: To capture the result card div as a high-quality image.
  • jsPDF: To take that generated image and place it into a new PDF document that users could download.

Challenges and Creative Solutions

1. Striking the Right Satirical Tone: The biggest creative challenge was writing the content. The text had to be recognizably political but exaggerated to the point of absurdity. I wrote different humorous messages for each profession (student, employee, business owner, etc.), each one escalating the ridiculousness. For example, the message for expatriates includes a veiled threat about checking on their families if the “donation” is late, mimicking the language of political pressure.
2. The PDF Receipt: Implementing the PDF download feature required some finesse. The initial challenge was ensuring the downloaded PDF looked clean and not like a messy screenshot. By using html2canvas with a higher scale factor and setting a specific background color, I could generate a crisp image of the result card. This image was then seamlessly inserted into a PDF document by jsPDF, creating a shareable and official-looking “receipt.”
3. Designing for Humor: The UI/UX was intentionally designed to create a comedic contrast. A sleek, dark-mode interface with a “loading” spinner gives the impression of a complex financial calculation. When this serious-looking app produces a ridiculous “mandatory contribution,” the comedic payoff is much greater.

Final Outcome and Reflection

The final product is a fast, funny, and fully responsive web app available at chanda-calculator.vercel.app. It successfully captures the satirical spirit I intended, and the PDF download feature has proven to be a popular, shareable element.

This project was a fantastic exercise in combining creative concept development with practical frontend skills. It reinforced my abilities in React and Tailwind CSS and taught me how to integrate third-party libraries like jsPDF to create unique user experiences. More importantly, it was a reminder that sometimes, the most engaging projects are the ones that don’t take themselves too seriously.