ON AIR

[Text by D.B., photos as mentioned]

Well, we all celebrated the World’s Music Day, a week ago. Frankly speaking I wasn’t aware of this day despite of my knack of remembering important dates, but, the TV commercials, advertisements in print media, etc. brought ‘it’ to my notice. Being a ‘music freak’, I actually never felt the need of dedicating a ‘single’ day to music, the same way as I feel for Valentine’s, Mother’s or Father’s day. But then, I guess, it is the best way to show your love towards respective things. The name, ‘Music Freak’, was given to me by a salesman when he asked me, “What type of music you listen to, Sir?” to which I replied, “Everything, from Kishore Da to LP, from Classical to Hip-Hop.. I listen to Music, not the genres!” and he said, smiling, “So, you are the ‘music-freak’ types!” Clueless, I nodded and agreed with the person. And what made me a ‘music-freak’ is the content of this post.

source : Google Images

It started off (listening to music) back in my childhood days with my dad’s antique, old-fashioned, nearly-dying; Ramsons FM radio set, the one with an adjustable antenna. The ‘pre-historic’ FM set with black-leather cover with pores on one side, the one covering the speaker, having enough space to adjust the ‘rotatable’ antenna, could play AM or FM and SW, MW were the other channels (supposedly) which always played the ‘How disturbance sounds..’ track! Frequency adjustment, which is a very complicated stuff requiring skilled-labor, was not that tough those days reason being the limited frequencies available. On could either listen to Vivid Bharti or AIR. I grew up listening to those oldies, retro hits.

The new Radio-speaker set made entry in late ‘90s and changed the way. I can recall it was an assembled set, with two huge speakers, which we bought in just thousand bucks and it served as the ‘main source’ of entertainment for the family, though me and my mom are the two interested in music! The set had an in-built audio-cassette player too, which gave me an opportunity to go for ‘newer’ songs. In short period I had a good collection of cassettes with me. Most of them belonged to Bollywood and others were custom-made. I remember Dil Chahta Hai and Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein were two of my ‘priced-possessions’. Just Rs. 40- Rs. 60, which used to be the price! My Daadi used to scold me, “Asi nahaandeya bhagwan da naa lende aa, ae moya gaaney gaanda hai!” (“We always pray to god while bathing and he is busy singing songs”, this much translation is enough for those who don’t understand Punjabi language, I guess)

With the milestone year, ‘Y2K’, the whole scene took a transformation. It brought the new era for the FM with the introduction of newer frequencies. 91.0, 93.5 and 98.3 became the very first numerals which had their own name, Radio City, Red FM and Radio Mirchi, respectively. It was a revolution! The old ‘slow-paced-news-telling’ face of the Radio had been given a new identity, new voices and new songs. There was so much to listen to. The earlier shows of AIR had RJ’s with subtle voice, slow speech delivery and a very good bond with the ‘selected’ audience. When I say ‘selected’, it is merely because it was heard all over the nation at one time. People who used to call in or write letters were those same Bittu, Pinky and Munni from Zila Jabalpur or so and so village. Even the RJs knew them and used to respond to them with warmth and compassion. This was the ‘feel’ of that era. The new stations, on the other hand, were city oriented, and thus were focused on the things happening in your city. The RJ’s are talking about your area or a market near your place, they are telling you where you could find traffic, this too created the sense or the ‘feel’, but in a very short time. The voices eventually became the face of the Channel and thus the choice of the listener. You had more options so you could flip the channel whenever you want to. If one channel had advertisements On Air, you could search for the songs on the other. The new competition struck the old channels badly and they too jumped into competition with new names, AIR FM Rainbow and AIR FM GOLD, quite easy to make out that Rainbow aired newer songs and Gold aired Classics. From just two in the box, now there were five frequencies. The number kept on rising with the introduction of channels like HIT FM, which came into lime-light with its ‘no advertisement, Only Hit Music’ campaign. It played hit songs like mad, whole day, without a break. Later it also went into the ‘commercial’ zone, that’s a different story. BIG FM, Fever 104, Radio One were added much later to the list with frequencies like 104.8 which kept on changing, earlier Meow FM to the latest Oye Hoye!

The first three have made their mark in my musical journey so far. Very near to the birth of these stations, my parents brought me a ‘pencil-pocket radio’. It was a Chinese invention (had to be) and was cheap. They bought it from Mumbai and it was amazing and came out to be a ‘blessing’ for me! It could catch 20 frequencies and flipping from one to other was just a click away. It didn’t have a speaker and earphones could be attached to it. It was an extremely easy-to-carry entertainment. That was the first time when I started ‘carrying’ my music. I did even carry that to my school, which apparently, was a very big issue at that time. It had battery slots for the small pencil batteries, which used to be Rs. 10 at that time and the radio itself had a price tag of Rs. 80 only! It came to Delhi markets after a long period. The best time to use it was when there was a power cut. That is actually one of the best memories of my childhood – Having a power-cut! As soon as there is a power cut, the whole family gets together in the balcony, sitting on chaar-pai, having hand-made pankha or newspapers in hand, staring towards the sky (as a kid I always used to lie down on chaar-pai), waiting for the power to come as you could do nothing about it! That gave everyone an ‘unintentional vacation’ from their tasks-to-do. Ah.. Fond memory! This phase made me addicted to FM and thus Music.

Its not the one, But its exactly what I had.
source : Google Images

I was acquainted to the Radio Jockeys and started ‘following’ them. The very first ones were Ulta pulta Nitin, RJ Sayema, RJ Mantra, and few others. My relationship with them grew day by day, months by months, years by years. Till now, I have been listening to them; Nitin has shifted from one channel to other a couple of times, Sayema is still there with her magical voice for Purani Jeans. Even today, switching on the radio and listening to Purani Jeans every day, is a part of my habit. I know what her Abbu told her about the festival of Eid, I know how she felt when she came to know that she’s connected to some other country; she’s more than a friend to me! These ‘friends’ of mine became part of my life. In 10^th standard I dedicated a song to my class-friend on birthday, for the first time (and no one knows about this, which makes this a ‘confession’). It was a damn tough thing for a kid to ‘dedicate’ something on radio as you had to e-mail them the request. Fortunately, mine got selected and unfortunately, she didn’t hear it. I did and it was an awesome feeling to hear your dedication on air when you know that so many people would be listening to it! Phew! I remember, I heard the semi-finals of 1^st Indian Idol on FM, before my exams, during power cut. Abhijeet Sawant sang Tu mile, Dil khiley..  Well, I do have plenty of such memories linked with this juke-box. The funniest or may be the most tragic is that I even tried for the Job of Radio Jockey. I gave auditions for it in my BOARD exams, just before the Mathematics’ one. It was a Talent Hunt for Junior Jockeys.

Even my shift from the city to my ‘remote’ college campus could not change my love with the box. I said ‘remote’, because it is the place where, if you are lucky, you can listen to BIG FM or VIVIDH BHARTI or, on a clear day, even Pakistani frequencies! I managed a jugaad and connected tiny speakers to my mobile with one wire hanging from the window of my room so as to catch signals and I got addicted with RJ Rahul Makin and his show Yaadein, which plays Gazals. Recently, he also shifted to Delhi and is now working here.

Time changed, devices changed, frequencies changed but my love for this device is still the same. More than the device, I guess the people, their warm presence, their ‘connection’ with you that tells you that you are never alone, makes FM close to the heart. And above all, it’s the Music that you listen.

From the days of my childhood, listening to Radio on chaar-pai on a ‘power-cut-night’.. to getting a text from a friend while travelling in Metro, “tune in to 95FM, awesome song”, it’s been a long and melodious journey. No matter whatever collection of songs you have, it has a different ‘feel’ when its ON AIR! 

All in a Day's Play

Cricket - the Indian Timepass 

The young son of Kamlesh-the rickshawala, the younger of his two children plays cricket with the kids in my colony. I also recognised Siya Ram’s (the Dhobi’s) nephew, and another Dhobi’s boy. Kids from well off families treat him the same. He gets his fair innings of batting. And every time I pass by, he shouts from the other corner of the playground- “Namaste Didi!” like an obedient little boy. His father has seen me grow up in the neighbourhood. 

To him, it’s about culture and etiquettes- “Sabhyata” as he calls it, to make sure his son greets all those familiar faces of the neighbourhood. The sight of seeing the kids play together was one of Equality. It was refreshing. I brought me back to writing after month’s hibernation.

Kamlesh is a local rickshawallah who has lived in the vicinity of my ...it would more apt to say that I have lived in the vicinity of his home for the past ten years. Kamlesh, his wife, and two children are a happy family. Kamlesh had always waited along with the other rickshawallas near the neighbourhood Panwadi at the local cycle rickshaw stand. And Kamlesh never refuses to let you sit in his rickshaw just because you bargained to give him five rupees less than what he asked for. He smiles and says, “chalo saab, jo banta ho de dena.” (Come on sir, whatever you think is apt, just pay me that much).”

But there is more than meets the eye to Kamlesh. Kamlesh was a graduate in arts from some government college in some remote Gaon in Uttar Pradesh. He was too poor to sustain the lull-period for looking for a job, and he was married young. He brought his young bride to the city without a place to live, and his search and trial of odd little jobs finally left him with the no choice but to cycle the rickshaw for a livelihood.

He takes computer classes and learns MS Office in the off-peak hours every afternoon, because he aspires to give up this life for anything better. His daughter always gets elected as the class-monitor for her section in the Government Sr. Sec. School in Vikaspuri, and she invariably stands within the first three ranks in her class. His son plays cricket as an equal with the kids from affluent families in my colony. 

Looking at the amount that NIIT (and the likes) charge at training people in the simplest of  software, it is insanely high. So when he told me this, I went straight to thinking as to how he could afford it? Well I never really asked this straight to his face but I guess the answer would be that 'Where there is a will there is a way'.

He is the humblest and one of the most hardworking class you will ever come across on the streets of Delhi - the Cycle Rickshawallas. Unlike their meaner brethren - the Auto Drivers - who rob people in broad daylight (charging as high as 40 bucks extra on top of the normal fares, sometimes even double straightway if you dare to hold your hand out to them during auto strike),, the cycle rickshawallas do hardcore labour for their money.

Rickshawallahs working in the sun

In fact, most of the times if they don’t argue for that 5 extra rupees, you would rather just give them 10 bucks more than normal, out of gratitude and sympathy for their condition. One Lungi, one Gamchha, one Banyan soaked in sweat and dirt and a back full of prickly heat! Oh god, the sight makes me lose my apetite but Kamlesh still smiles despite the 48 degrees summer afternoon and makes small talk. When we hit a road that has been perennially the hell-road for rick’s(... it feels worse than the village roads on mountains with its bumps and craters...) Kamlesh shares with me his insights of the politics of local MLA’s.

He has seen the last one when the MLA has first gotten elected, and 10 years later when that stagnant vegetating couch-potato of an MLA left, he had two huge Kothis with spacious driveways and numerous cars in the neigbourhood (Skoda's and Nissan's...mind you). But this "Jhannum of a road" was the same then and is the same now. A few days later, when the road became normal, he smiled judging my surprise and said “Maidam, election aa raha hoga na, naya candidate hoga... Issi liye aisa sab gaddha bhar diya hai, nahi toh 10 saal baad yeh road kaun dekhta?” And he was right. A week later there was Naarebaazi (loud slogan-shouting) and a new candidate was finally campaigning for the MLA’s seat. He won. 4 months later the monsoons came.

Rickshawallahs working in the rain

The road is back to HELL-Road with puddles and back breaking bumps like it has been for all these years, so much so that maybe they should make it official: Jhannum-Road, F-Block, Vikaspuri, New Delhi- 110018. And those like Kamlesh will get used to this suffering. Kamlesh will keep his children in school and learn the computer. Because he may be a rickshaw driver but he aspires to be much more. And the MLA will vegetate into a bigger potato than the last one. And the Auto’s will charge insane amounts. But Kamlesh and his Rickshawalla's near Chaurasia Pan-wala, F - Block, will suffer and smile on.

DIP

Dip toe in the water ,

sand particles slowly detach from your skin to flow away with the pristine liquid...

into the deep blue pool of life giving nectar ,

to play its role in the drama that unflods each day.

The drama that is life.

Dip toe in the water ,

coolness flows all over it...

Dip your foot in the water ,

its welcomed in the loamy bed...

let the calm spread all over , close your eyes and listen to it.It will tell you you are home.

Slowly ebbing tides trickle water down the ankle...receeding back again...

beckon your body to come ,

submerge itself into its source.

Lay your palm on the water ,

the ripples rise... dancing away coz you've arrived...

sparkling in the sunlight. cool breath of the ocean surrounds you.

the water like a crystal , will  mirror the sky on its surface....

and will reflect with it the mingle of you and itself.

Known Strangers....

People we see every day, then we start passing smiles and at times help them. Everyday while going to the office or college or school or anywhere else, you see so many people but there are some faces which you see every single day and become familiar with, they are your "known strangers".

Ajeeb na known bhi hai strangers bhi...

Hum unhe roz miltey hai but pata nahi kitne time tak unka naam bhi nahi jante that is why they are strangers to us and on a bad day when we are all pissed and the world is our enemy we see one such person passing a smile at us and we feel good, i wont say we just forget all our worries but we do feel better, don't we??

Since this blog is about acknowledging and cherishing small things in life, I think this particular situation teaches us how important they are.We get many such opportunities of being happy, to have a feeling that things are not as bad as they seem because these small things can give us the strength to overlook big problems.

There are many such examples like a friend's friend who I have met only twice sends a joke every morning and his jokes do make me smile. Someone remembered the first day of my internship, wished me luck and believe me I really dint think that he would remember, I mean it was not that necessary wala situation, but it made me feel happy and I forgot that there were certain other people who were supposed to remember it but dint.

You get up in the morning and look at your cellphone to see the time and you still have some more time to sleep.. yay!!!. You go to a panwadi and without even asking he just give you your brand, I mean he must be having a number of customers and still he remembers you and your brand. Early in the morning you come to the office and no one has come yet only the clerical staff, you wish them before they do and what big smile they have on their face. Its not about how many people, things or situations make you happy but when you make someone smile it counts.

So the point is life is as it is so complicated, try not to complicate it further. Start thinking about all such small things and life will be simpler and you'll be happier. 

SINGLE IN THE CITY

[Text by D.B.]

[The views expressed here belong to the writer and are not supposed to match with the reader’s. There are no clicks; you’ll get to know why]

“The best feeling comes when you realize that you are perfectly happy without the things once you thought you needed the most…!”

It’s good to be back!

I am back for what could be termed as the ‘last’ summer vacations of my career. But the starting line doesn’t refer to this ‘being back’; it’s about the short break that I took since I posted my last blog. The last two weeks have been pleasant and gratifying. The sudden shift from the ‘campus in nature’s lap’ (quite literally) to the crowded ‘heart of nation’ was quite a bit shuddery this time. The city seemed to be in some sort of rush. The fast-driven traffic, over-crowded metros, streets, buses, even restaurants, scorching summer heat and particularly phone-calls, messages and FB, all blew my mind! Well, I might sound a bit exaggerated but I actually couldn’t handle the hustle of meri apni Dilli..  

Last time when I was in the city, I was working and thus was quite well occupied. Reason for this time’s fidgety feeling could possibly be the ‘unemployment’. I had no work to do, no tasks to complete, no submissions to be made, no assignments to be submitted and opposite to all this, sitting ‘idle’ is not my cup of tea. Moreover, being ‘single’, worked as the catalyst to the chemical locha going in my mind. People who call themselves ‘single’, but actually are only 50% of it, can be considered occupied (not using the word ‘employed’ here). After all love in itself is sort of a job. You either have it or you don’t. Texting her/him morning and night messages, enquiring for their well being thrice a day, logged in to FB waiting for them to come online so you could chat for a while, ‘poking’ them or even sending emails awaiting their replies, all these things can easily keep a ‘50% single’ person busy. Now mentioning all these things doesn’t make me a 50% single. I am a proud 100% Single who tried all the above mentioned tricks but couldn’t get the ‘job’, thus unemployed.

                                      “Gham-e-ishq gar na hota… Gham-e-rozgaar hota..!”

                                                                                                                                  Mirza Ghalib

So, despite of getting agitated of the ‘gham-e-rozgaar’, I decided to take a break. I decided to run into a sort of ‘solitary confinement’. A small vacation from the so called ‘virtual-society’, from internet, from cell-phone, from messaging, etc. Well, I had nothing on stake. ‘My temporary absence would not make any difference to the society, for god sake’, with that thought in my mind, I laid back taking a sigh of relief. As mentioned earlier, how could a person with immense urge to ‘move out’, stay at home, doing nothing. This resulted in me, roaming around like mad, observing people. Wait; did I mention that I also included my camera in the ‘virtual-society’? Yeah, well, that’s right. I quit photography also for these two weeks. I just wanted to observe things and find pleasure in them. The course ended up with n number of experiences, few were a delight to eyes and others were delight for the inner-self. By the end of it, I am ready with my own version of 5 things to do if you are Single in the City.

Open up your eyes

There is a lot going around the city. If you read newspapers daily then you must have got my hint. Events like Plays, Dramas, Movie screenings, Exhibitions, Cultural celebrations, Shows, all this is happening around you. You just need to be at the right place at the right time. Newspapers are flooded with such advertisements and notices; pick the ones with Entry Free (remember, I am writing for ‘Singles' in the city) and zip into the place and experience what you missed till date.

(Hint: Check out DT’s WHAT’S HOT and HT City’s My City section)

The City is walking, where are you?

There are plenty of ‘Walks’ going in the city like The Delhi Heritage Walk, Heritage walks by INTACH, Photography Walks, etc. (Believe me, they have not paid me to promote them) The walks are organized on weekly basis to generate awareness amongst the citizens about the Heritage of our City and that is the whole sole reason why I am promoting them. Step out and learn what you never knew about those old ‘stone-walls’. They charge 50 bucks to some 300 and guide you through the selected site. It’s the best way to interact with people and take initiatives on heritage grounds.

The History lies where it was..

How many of you have visited the National Museum in resent past? Or National Science Museum? Or National Museum of Natural history? We all get that ‘Ewww..’ look when we hear these names, right? I know, they are old, we used to go there through school trips, they are boring, and such we have plenty of reasons to sit back at home but visiting our own Museums. Well, those who are interested can check out the list on Delhi Govt.’s website or Google them up!

(USP : Entry to most of them is nominal and have discounts for students. The History shown is awesome)

Phone – a – Friend

You might have noticed whenever we want to spend some time alone we decide to sit in the park, we sit where there are people around. That’s human attitude, we find ourselves comfortable where there is some ‘activity’ going on. Call up a friend you are most comfortable with and explore the famous food joints, cafés, eateries, and even road side food stalls. Check out what they offer and rate them in ‘Highway On My Plate’ style! Believe me, it is pure fun and you won’t end up empty-stomach!

(Warning : Call up a ‘Friend’, NOT your past/present love interest, I am not talking about ‘date’)

    

Hit the Library

This is what I did in the last three days of my small vacation. An old library, hundreds of books around, all covered in layers of dust, old fan with ‘chee chee’ sound, pin-drop (mind it, pin drop) silence, morning 10 to evening 7, no hustle of the city, no afternoon heat, total filmy setting, just you, your book and its content. What a Life! (After reading this some would say, ‘Get a Life!’) But that feeling of reading and continuous reading hooked me up. For three days I had a smile on my face. It reminded me of an old story from 12^th standard, The Bet. Like the person in the story, I was in confinement, but happy. Book Now!

So that’s how my break ended. I am refreshed. “Happiness is real only when shared”, and thus I have so much to share that, I guess, next few blogs would be based on my experiences from this short-vacation only. Bear with me! If you have any suggestions, ideas and new places to roam around, please comment below on the blog or on our FB page(https://www.facebook.com/PanwadiTales). I am always looking forward to such vacations.

The Idea for the vacation originally inspired by the movie Eat Pray Love, based on memoir by American author Elizabeth Gilbert. It forced me to take a break from life! :)