Radio Ga-Ga
My first association with radio was the old toota-foota Murphy radio that we had at home ... which inspite of its exterior ugliness served well and played wonderful music(whenever the radio station choose to play it) ...
When I visited my grandparents in chennai, i would hate the radio, because my thatha would put it on at 5:30 in the morning and wake the whole neighbourhood up ... Those were times when the day HAD to begin with a group of singers crooning "Vandemataram" .... it would be followed by classical music by some non-existent and some existent and known musician ... Then would come the best part for my grandfather - the news ... i always admired the voices that read the news - so crisp and so much full of authority .... Radio was a part and parcel of my holidays .. it would be constantly on in the background, and no matter where in the house one was, he/she would never fail to listen to the commentator on the Radio.
Radios bring back to memory an article i read once in Gokulam(an almost non-existent magazine for children, but one which was full of so much good stuff years ago .. ) - a lady of 55 reminiscing about her childhood memories of the radio - where she would imagine herself to be a singer and sit behind the radio and sing aloud, in the hope that it was being aired all over the country ...
In the days of my mother's teenage it was the only source of music and information .. Everybody must have a radio and would eagerly wait for that one hour when new songs were aired ..
I loved seeing songs like "Meet Na Mila .." and "Nahin bhoolengi Barsaat ki woh raat" , where they show songs being aired on radio and how much people would enjoy it ...
Radios also are mentioned in this beautiful songs by Carpenters .. Yesterday Once More ..
Then for a while Radios became extinct .. No body, except poor cobblers or panwalas heard it .. and soon they became historic ...
When I visited my grandparents in chennai, i would hate the radio, because my thatha would put it on at 5:30 in the morning and wake the whole neighbourhood up ... Those were times when the day HAD to begin with a group of singers crooning "Vandemataram" .... it would be followed by classical music by some non-existent and some existent and known musician ... Then would come the best part for my grandfather - the news ... i always admired the voices that read the news - so crisp and so much full of authority .... Radio was a part and parcel of my holidays .. it would be constantly on in the background, and no matter where in the house one was, he/she would never fail to listen to the commentator on the Radio.
Radios bring back to memory an article i read once in Gokulam(an almost non-existent magazine for children, but one which was full of so much good stuff years ago .. ) - a lady of 55 reminiscing about her childhood memories of the radio - where she would imagine herself to be a singer and sit behind the radio and sing aloud, in the hope that it was being aired all over the country ...
In the days of my mother's teenage it was the only source of music and information .. Everybody must have a radio and would eagerly wait for that one hour when new songs were aired ..
I loved seeing songs like "Meet Na Mila .." and "Nahin bhoolengi Barsaat ki woh raat" , where they show songs being aired on radio and how much people would enjoy it ...
Radios also are mentioned in this beautiful songs by Carpenters .. Yesterday Once More ..
Then for a while Radios became extinct .. No body, except poor cobblers or panwalas heard it .. and soon they became historic ...
And then suddenly, they came back with a big bang .. through the popular FM Channels .
Suddenly, Radios were the in-thing .. Miniatures radios were manufactured and were strewn all over the market. Radio was being played everywhere from Office buses, to chai shops , to hotels to City Buses! .. People would refuse to start the day without hearing to their favourite RJs and Radio Jockeys became the most envious people of all....
Today the craze for the FM Channels is undescribable .. (that is my own word by the way) .. I cannot imagine travelling for an hour in the bus without the company of the FM ... I feel something lacking on a day that my walkman refuses to play or batteries get over ...
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