And Then There Was The Interview

Its rather uncanny that just a couple of week ago I had written an overlong blog post with a litany of happenings in my radio life and just 3 days after, I had to end up running through the whole scene again on an interview with AOL India. Now believe me, stuff like interviews make me rather queasy. Not because I'm a nervous wreck suffering from big stage butterflies. Quite the contrary, I quite love the showboating and the attention that comes from the big stage. But interviews are another event totally. Can I say they humble me or make me feel not so right. Maybe I have a part of me that thinks I'm not just big enough to merit an interview..Some of us might beg to differ (trust me even if you don't, just pretend you do. You'll flatter my frail ego), but I tend to believe that interviews are mostly the stuff that people like AB Sr, Federer, De Nero, and company are supposed to dish out.

Now having said that, there was an interview with Yours Truly on his JanamDin, Sept 4th (yeh those of you who missed, treat it as a not so kind reminder to you that you forgot). The fact that it was done by one of my good friends Tisha (Treasa, the real name goes), isnt supposed to rob me of any credit, should it. And coming from a Deccan Herald background ,her sincerity to the job better not be questioned. Ok so the case is settled. No favouritism, purely an interview on merit.

The interview was telephonic and the published look of it bore a close resemblance to what transpired over the call. Here goes the link. I promise you the guy in the picture is me - the Real McCoy. I'm a little affected by the symmetrical finish of my face, I did'nt quite know Photoshop could do that much. Then I'm sure you're not looking at the picture, but the more important things written out there.

http://www.aol.in/news-story/Rocking-it-on-Rainbow-101-3/2008090516089019000001

Good stuff with the writing there Tisha. You've made me sound smart. I don't remember mouthing out some of those high falutin sentences, but then I'm not complaining about the way they've ended up looking. I seriously like them.

Oh by the way,if you did'nt notice yet, I've waxed eloquent about my displeasure on the ban of 'live bands' ( I could swear she mentioned live music and dance in her question) , calling it a retrogressive step and a slap on the face of art and artists. Well I can tell you that I do feel sorry for the Dancing Queens and their bosses who lose a livelihood with the ban, but I need to clarify that it was the answer for a question on Live Music and Dance.I re-iterate that I do not consider Mujra a high art ...Thanks Subhendu for pointing that out. I can always count on you for locating a glitch that would make me look like an idiot.

So thats the dope for now. Guess I sound deliciously modest after all (could question the wisdom behind the adjective). More shows lined up for the month, a lot of thursdays and tuesdays in addition to the mondays. Yet to get a clear look into the booking charts. And whats really hot on the desi music charts for now is Rock On... Moviewise and musicwise its Spot On coming in after a lot of Bollywood trash that have been best Spat On. I hear Rakesh Roshan is planning up the sequel. Its to be called Farhan-Arjun.

So long.More progress to be reported on the next week. Till then

Rock On, Yeh Hai Waqt Ka Ishaara
J

Abhi To Picture Baaki Hai Mere Dost

I do not intend to hand out a leaflet of pop philosophy to the 5 (or 7) of you reading this piece, but there's something I strongly believe in - that things in the present would outweigh things in the past in its level of importance, not by virtue of magnitude but by virtue of recency. I call it the Theory of Recency (a particularly sad attempt at sounding like Einstein).

Bindra and co scooping up the booty from Bejing, a 44 year old female republican running mate in the US of A, the burial of a middle class dream at Singur, the Men in Blue charting another success story and much more in the space of a week,seems good enough for the week to be a 'podium position week'. Well, the hard part is that Theory of Recency mostly defies conventional logic. So the current week, which, as yet, has two key headline news items - the author watching the movie Rock On and 101.3 FM Rainbow turning 7, suddenly has started looking a landmark red letter week. Probably a case of the relatable things staying on top of the mind. Maybe its just my new Theory of Relativity. So for all practical purposes, I am Einstein. Face it.

So my theories are not making much sense yet. Well I guess some people were just meant to talk about things which they know best, so I will stick the Fevi to radio (I own the patent for that one). It's about 10 years now since the concept of FM for mass entertainment kicked in, the first time in India. With the launch of AIR FM in its various forms and avatars and RadioCity as the first private radio station 7 years ago, things looked bright. Some stalwarts booked their spot in the limelight. Some others made quiet progress. Yours Truly began his journey with FM Metro in Chennai in 2000 continuing on to 2002 and then making a start with FM Rainbow in Bangalore by mid 2004 on till this day. Thats a decent 6 plus years to have had a relationship with radio. Its been quite a climb and I have to reminisce back to the day I did my first show in Chennai to my first day in Bangalore and then proceed to count the slip ups, goof ups, gaffes and howlers that have been part of my journey. And trust me, suddenly my CV isnt looking as impressive as I want it to be.

I started out my stint with radio reading news, presenting science programs, doing an arbit late night 30 minute show in addition to reading out program highlights for the primary channel (the one that you always called AIR - on the AM waves). My first break on FM came in on a substitution call for an RJ who was down with the runs I believe. Well fact is that I had a sense of cold confidence that I was this supercool bloke who could just walk in to the FM station and steal the thunder out of God Odin's lap. So I braced up for the opportunity and headed for my first show, music all fixed up, mind all set, script all written out just in case. The show timing was from 7 pm to 9 pm. And as I turned up the fader and went live for the first time in my life, I shouted out GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNNNNNNNNNNNNINGGGGGGGGG CHENNNNNNNNNNNAIIIIIII, ITS 7 PM NOW, HOW'RE YOU DOING. What an ass, do I have to say the rest!!!!! I lived in depression for long after that day and that eventful beginning scarred my entire stint with the FM station at Chennai.

I had a much more confident start at Bangalore and its surprising that the nightmare of Chennai never visited me here. I like to believe that its been smooth going for the most part. The listener base from both cities, diametrically different in many respects, have provided a wonderful study in contrast. But one common trait would be that both cities contain an amazingly well informed set of international music listeners. To say that radio has shaped my personality, would be an understatement of sorts. It has MADE me. Period.

The progress would'nt slow down from hereon, I can assure you. Abhi to picture baaki hai mere dost.

Love,peace and brotherhood (thats the woodstock '69 caption line by the way, which I shamelssly use without a license)

J

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

Blessed Nothings Blasted Somethings

Good Morning

Morning it is. 5 am. Have'nt got a wink of sunday sleep. Blame it on force of habit and hair loss. (I'm still thinking of reason no.3 and 4). It's been a week since I last stepped into the hallowed halls of All India Radio, and a lot of water has flown through the Ulsoor lake and a lot of ammonium nitrate has passed through the atmosphere of the city since.

I had plans of writing about subjects as diverse as the brand new studio console, my mothers' obsession for train journeys,the cultivation of cucumber in Upper Volta,etc, but I finally decided to stick to more dark and depressing subjects like bombs and my radio show. (not necessarily in that order).

It is my 4th tryst with disaster in a city.I've had an incredible knack of picking up cities that maybe subject to bomb blasts and natural disasters nad being present right there, which is scary as much as it is empowering. Without any attempt at political correctness, with all my heart,lungs and every living part of my body, I would like to express spite, anger and hatred towards the low lives who actually manipulated and designed this whole situation. But ultimately what does'nt kill us makes us stronger, so I'm hoping we're stronger and wiser with the experience.

Nothing eventful to report about on the last radio show I did, except that there was no noticeable influence of Satan anywhere around (ref: to the person who actually mentioned about satanic music in one of the shows).The music rolled on, I went through with some select picks .To be honest I dont remember a thing of what I did last week, trying my best to recall. But one week is long enough time to forget and to come up with good enough explanations for forgetting.

Alright, the easier bit would be this week. I'm slotted (lol,makes me look like a die machine) for 2 shows this week. Monday (today) as usual 6 to 7 and 9 to 11 pm and same time on wednesday too. Looking forward to getting back to our original studio and using the brand new console. Its all digital with shining LCD et al like some hip hoppers bling. Mine eyes, they dazzle. Lol, jokes aside, I've heard that this thing is really state of the art.

Thats it for now, hope we have a better week with more rains,more diesel, less power cuts, no disasters and the best from radio. Damn, thats a tv sign out line. Feel free to send in your requests and dedications too.

Cheerio people. Till next week.

Peace

J

A tightrope walk through the airwaves

Smart

I started this blog a couple of minutes ago and I'm into my second post already. Talk about setting things in motion (now don't get potty thoughts..grr). So, while the whole and soul purpose of this blog would technically be to list out happenings on my radio shows with a professional/personal perspective, I would still beg to digress here and there, with or without your permission.

So there was a mighty hauling of cable lines drawn outside our regular studio last monday, which meant that we were shifted to a nondescript little recording room that masqueraded as a studio. Well I'll tell you what I'm just about getting used to the fact that All India Radio has 2 computers (remember I'm a 6 yr war scarred veteran who's used to spools and records) and voila while my mindset adjustment is in process, I'm booted out to a recording room to do my show. So there's a control unit in this room which has a lot of scary looking antique buttons that look like they may set off a bomb timer. So during my drive time show at 6pm, I use the opportunity to goof around a little,learn the ropes of this transmitting and recording unit, mess up big time, but still stay happy that I have mastered this studio. Come 9pm, MAST 101.3, no surprises to mess ups for the most part. We're talking about funny stuff on the show. And I must say that when you let people belt out the funnies in their lives uninhibited, even the most trivial rubbish can evoke belly laughs. So I did have a good time, but yeh, had another hour to go.

Now I somehow develop this deep sense of security and beleive that the world's my oyester when I step into the groove for the International music hour, a show called The Rockbox, where I play rock music (no rock is not heavy metal, try arguing with me on that) of all forms and subgenres. But then you know its not all roses and lilies that surround your pond all the time, so nature or your studio equipment decides to water down your best laid plans sometimes and throw some new challenges. Its Murphy's Law at work man, don't blame me. So the good old CD player in the good old recording room, spat out a CD after I had proudly announced that I'd be playing Life is Beautiful by 6 am after it'd been requested for 4 to 5 weeks continously by a gentleman. Well it did'nt play. But I did get to play Shine by Collective Soul which I'd been dying to play for sometime now. Somewhere down the line, the duty officer (if you're familiar with the government, all that you do in an 'office' -music included- within your work timing constitutes 'duty'. So your show is also called 'duty', the security's job is also called 'duty'. so get used to 'duty') felt the music went a little too loud. Well I could'nt really talk the gentleman into the virtues of melodic death and prog metal. Among the many messages that came by, I could'nt help but notice one, which requested (a real request of sorts) if I could desist from playing anything satanic, even if I have'nt as yet. Since I like to personally address a lot of messages, I said I would do my bit to weed out unhealthy messages (try winning that battle with rock music) and I progressed to play one of my favorite classics Rock Bottom by UFO. Well mother of all horrors, I realized it had rich satanic content. I could'nt help but feel a little stupid and funny.

I've got some requests for the next monday show, and have some of my personal picks too. If you wish to add to the cart, go right ahead. Remember its got to be Rock music of some form (Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse and Justin Timberlake are not rock artists). I may play it based on the format of the show on the subsequent week or the weeks after. Oh while I'm at it, I might have a thursday 'duty' to fill too. Will play all the bubblegum you want then :-).

Rock On
J

A little bit of radio in my fingers

Hi All

I desisted from this itchy urge of starting up with a radio like bang, almost forgetting that I would'nt be heard. So its just that low key plastic Hi All start. For now, all is just me, soon I'm hoping, all is going to be many more of us.

This is the start of new blog, though I might be tempted to say it heralds the dawn of a new movement. Its my second foray into blogging, my first one still up and chronicled with some pearls of elevated nonsense.

So structure demands that you have an introduction, body text and a conclusion. But if you conveniently place it under the garb of counterculture you don't need to give a toss about structure unless it pertains to the human body. So on that disjuncted note, I'll open the door for some little pieces of small talk to set in from me, you or the world at large.

By the way, I'm Sanjay Das and I do shows on 101.3 FM Rainbow all monday nights. So keep reading and there is a wee little possibility of something interesting transpiring in the blogs to follow.

Till then
All the louvings
Sanjay