R.A.D.I.O

Radio was only in kannada, I presumed, when I was a small kid. My dad is a radio fan. He has a portable radio which he took everywhere and played it all the time . On the bathroom window sill while he is shaving.below a chair in the balcony while he is scanning the newspaper in minute prints . on an uncovered pillar on the terrace with the antenna of the radio closer to the rod . while there is a power cut and the family would trek the terrace for a moonlight dinner. Night at bedtime hindustani vocals or classical or instruments would be played until all of us are snoring and mom would get angry and turn it off to put a stop to her tossing and turning to get sleep. Early morning the day would start with sanskrit news and then while I throw my tantrums for brushing my teeth kannada news would be on to mellow down my mom's voice . I would stomp my feet and run around the house avoiding a boring upma being stuffed in my mouth while kannada- chitrageetegalu would be on the background giving the rhythm to my mom's chase.
In a smaller town life is so simple. You don’t have to pack lunch and have cold stale food instead you can run back home sit on your mom's lap and get fed . The only hitch is that you will have to eat faster than you can ever do and if you cannot you will have to gulp it down else it will keep piling in your mouth. Trust me mom's hand never stops when on something , until the task is finished. It keeps the pace and rhythm and keeps coming at you periodically and no breaks are ever entertained. The quantity is not reduced if you say you are not hungry but if you are hungry you will get double more than what you have asked for and in the end again the quantity doesn’t reduce. the feeling is same. So the best policy is to get stuffed according to their estimation and either munch a snack after that or the body itself would throw up the excess food. I preferred the latter because if you ask for snack chances are that either you might not get it at all or that
My dad's office and my school were pretty close by and the lunch break timings were same. Hence my dad would pick me up from school and we would have lunch together while the radio was giving out the last bits of the noon-news. Kannada chitrageetegalu would follow till 2 PM during which a family siesta was scheduled. I would squeeze in between the wall and dad near to the radio , lean my legs on the wall , watch the country flags poster, listen to Dr.Rajkumar or SP Balasubramaniam and doze off. That’s how I know most of the kannada songs only and not a single movie for which these songs were pictured.
When I was in Pre university classes watching television was not encouraged and moreover cable TV was disconnected only DD was available. I could not sneak in the foyer to watch TV as both of them would be there. And the sound from the tv was too tempting to concentrate on studies. I have heard through most of the television serials and imagined it and I m updated. Radio for some reason was not used much by my dad in the evenings. That was the trigger point for me to start listening to the radio on my own. I would tune into VivdhBharati to listen to Hello farmaish, pitaara , Jaimala , Bhule Bisre Geet, Hawa Mahal , Bioscope ki Baatein. I would listen to the RJs talking to their pyare Shrota- mitr throughout the evening . Only first few days I kept tuning and re-tuning to get the right signal and with a hope to listen to songs of new movies. However that interest died down as the backlog of things to do at school increased and I started enjoying whatever came on radio. Later on I was so used to the radio that I could study only if there was radio even though I did not listen to what was playing, it had to be there. It would help me keep my concentration on the subject and also cut me out from the rest of the world. This is again my dad's thought and it worked very well for me.
Travel is a part of work life and very few are lucky for whom it isn't. the routine grind of setting the alarm and snoozing it several times before the dawn breaks on you is so very usual. The only thing I would look forward to was to sit in the bus and listen to the radio and take the much needed nap before I reached the work place. I remember on 91.1. they had this amazing RJs called Chaitanya with an amazingly mature, calm, authoritative voice and it was a treat to listen to him. And listening to RJ Vasanthi was like listening to your grandmom stories the stories that take you to a different world just like how the movie Avatar did with those 3D glasses.
Somehow the radio channel wars had begun and just like how "Mumbai-kars"got the Amchi-Mumbai fever, kannada fever was spreading and all channels we tuned into played only kannada songs. Not that I don’t like them but I knew only those songs which I had listened to in my parents room. And I had sleepless travel to work place.
Phew! Just in time when the topics to discuss in the carpool had died down RadioCity comes up with 'one song only once per day' which became an instant hit with my fellow carpoolers. Every old song they played it would take us back in time and we would discuss about the movie and its whole cast. All our memories are so off that nothing strikes and we do google it to find out and share the information. lets see how well you remember :the song goes like this "Chori chori jab nazarein mili..." Bobby Deol and a flop heroine -Neha starred in this movie. whats the name of the movie? ... Guess... ? it is NOT Barsat. what is it? I'm yet to google it..! :)
3Rs : nothing beats listening to Radio , Reading a book While raking a hot cup of tea. Yeah you can make it the 4Rs as well... add a bit of thrill and romance to the set up - Add Rain. :) .
even today whenever I tune into Vividh Bharati it brings back those memories of my school-friends, studies, Udupi,the then-famous songs - like songs from movie-Ishq, sweat-you know the humidity in Coastal areas, mosquitoes - Again humidity and rains, the time when I weighed lesser and could easily manage to squeeze in with my parents in a twin-bed, and it is precious.

Whopppa...!!

Cannot seem to believe that time has just flown by. It is more than a year and there is not a single entry in my blog for year 2009. well, I have to pledge that I'll make sure that I blog at least one entry per quarter!
And this one is not counted for any quarter!!
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