Such An 'Awfully' Long Musical Journey

Awful is a strange adjective to qualify a long time. So is bloody. Think about it. Awfully long, bloody long. All that. I say strange and not terrible because its a guilt adjective. So guilty as charged I am for staying away for an awfully long time, when there was a lot happening around.

As a radio artist, one gets to realize at some point that events happening far from the music arena do play an important part during show days - before, while and after. Its easy when things are happy around since RJ's are always meant to be 'happy' and 'bubbly' souls. (Thats a load of bunkum. We are mostly a bunch of lost,messed up, cynical, manic depressive,schizophrenic individuals acting happy). So the happy vibe seeped in from Beijing to Bangalore and on to the airwaves of 101.3 FM too. Abhinav, Sushil and Vijender seemed to have suddenly transformed the spirits of a sagging city depressed by weighty issues like the lack of a nightlife,rising prices and bomb blasts (important as it maybe, i wonder why the first one takes precedence over the rest in this city). So the medals did buoy up the RJ's and listeners to revv up the music to all too different level. So it was all bright and cheery happy music on the last two thursdays and a more pronounced intensity to the rock music on the mondays.

I've grown to start loving my thursday stints. To the uninitiated, I have been traditionally and historically doing shows with a rockcentric theme on monday evenings. With the addition of a few thursdays in the month to my bookings, I've moved towards an easy feel sing along singles playlist on thursday nights. The drift remains the same for MAST 101.3 - the show featuring callers and bollywood hits.

Had ace racer Vikram Mathias on air for a live chat. Quite a delightful, well spoken who's been doing phenomenally well in the rallying circuit and it was quite a coincidence to discover a TOI interview with him in todays sports page. Since I'm all heart, I don't hate them for it.

The top of the Rainbow charts for bollywood is still reserved for Kabhi Kabhi Aditi from JTYJN, Lambi Judai from Jannat, Is This Love from Kismet Konnection and Teri Ore from Singh is Kinng for the die hard romantics (I find that a bit of an overrated cheesedrippy single..not too fond of the melody either). But the standard favorites from the immediate and not too distant past still retain a strong love factor.

With the international music hits, its a mixed bag. The metalheads don't have a moment of peace till the melody of death creeps into the setlist. We might be accused of a few double standards, but apologies guys,its not in the realm of mainstream mass media as much as I may love to have listen to it sometime myself. Rockstar by Nickelback makes a comeback after having a change in recording label, Queen is back with Paul Rodgers, Mariah and Madonna still going strong with their age defying act, Def Leppard rocking on with all their nine lives. Some people never get bored of My Heart Will Go On. Adam Levine of Maroon5 supposedly still turns on women.

Tell you what no matter who does what, the show will go on. New sets of favorites will emerges, new genres will take over, new superstars will rule the roost for a brief time frame. You and I would be the only constants in this entire circus. So make it large, while I get a ready for another musical outing.

Catch U soon
S'jay

When Chai Took the Cake

Here's the whole mess up about having a blog that needs to be maintained pretty regularly. It makes the authors take their postings far too seriously, even if they have 2 readers asking for updates. Well so it was, in my case. And so I'm back with another post, after perhaps 3 or 4 shows, if I remember right.

A little something some of us might want to know about All India Radio. All songs pass through a level of screening and sometimes, these screening reports can take many years to process. We've had cases of Veer Zaara and Jhankaar Beats coming by 2 years after release, now which isn't really bad. Sometimes its nice to play forgotten music and revive the spirit of it completely (ok,I get it that you get it..so since I'm ok with that cynical smirk from you,read on). So its not hard to imagine my expression of shock and horror, when I found the CD's with the screening reports for Singh is Kinng, Kismet Konnection and Mission Istanbul. Well one thing I can tell you, we're so grounded below the ground that little somethings like this give us a real high.

Ok so if that was a high, let me tell what took the cake. A cup of complimentary chai at 6.30 pm from the radio station. Now beleive me when I say that, it moved me to tears and I had a little salty taste in my chai upon receiving it. AIR is a real and true warm place with nice people around. I've always had a nice little vibe with all at the station, including the 'duty' officers (remember duty..duty duty..refer post 2), Program Executives (they've got fancy titles..executive n all..so cool), Sound Engineers (they're the rockstars,maintaing the systems), cos they're really sweet people most of the time (some honourable exceptions). But never,never and never in my 6 years in AIR, have I got a cup of chai on the house. And what's more, I had this personally 'hand delivered' by the 'Duty' Officer'.. You can't beat the feeling. It was such an emotional moment, I had 'O Duniya Ke Rakhwaale' playing as the background music in my mind right through it.

So the shows went on like ever, and we cussed and discussed about a few things. Well yeh, I have to bring in one special little moment of joy I had there. For the benefit of some of you, I'm from the way way southern part of the country,thats got coconut trees. I was having this topic of your favorite entertainment on MAST 101.3. I had someone calling in, and the girl mentioned that, she loved 'mouth looking' guys. Now if you're from my part of the world and know the cultural relevance of that term, I'll pause now for you to get up from the floor after you're done laughing. Trust me 'mouth looking' is a term thats exclusive to Malayalis. Its as exclusive as teashops, newspapers, tender coconut and beef curry. It literally means 'to check out someone from the opposite sex' (gawk eyed) and is a literal transalation of a colloquial mallu word 'vaynottam'. This word is so exclusive to us, that it would never ever be traded off for anything to any other societies, cultures or communities...nor to the Oxford dictionary. So I just started speaking to her in my local language off air. She was surprised,but I was surprised that she was surprised. But yeh, once she went on air and said the word, a huge lot of mallu brothers and sisters tuned in, messaged on the 'mouth looking' reference with little sadass quips and comments..lol.. Nasty nasty people I tell you, but funny all the way. My friends from any other part of the country or the world, I would forgive you for not catching the humour of this all, but the next time you do meet a malayali who speaks the language (and I'm sure wherever in the world you are, you will), do have a little chai and discussion on 'mouth looking'. I'll abandon my multicoloured lungi forever, if you don't find it funny then.

Boy, thats a long post.Be back soon.
J