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In the 1950s in our Muthukur Village there was no electricity. We did hear of a thing called Radio which was synonymous with AIR (All India Radio) or in the national lingo: Akashvani.
In the whole village there was only one household which boasted of a Battery-Murphy Set (Philips was twice as costly). We kids used to flock to their house every Sunday afternoon for the one-hour children's program in Telugu called Baalanandam (or some such goofy thing). It was broadcast from the studios of AIR, Madras, and had a middle-aged male and a female Radio Jockey (a phrase now notorious in the Aussie fiasco). They were called: Radio Annayya (Radio Dada) and Radio Akkayya (Radio Didi). Lots of kids' songs, inane plays, story-telling sessions by unfortunate kids, letter-reading ("we want more patriotic songs"), all punctuated by very condescending jockeying in fake children's lingo ("choo choo choo") by the underpaid RJs.
I was riveted to the glowing set itself (the back-flap had a hundred holes for ventilation...the red-hot vacuum tubes worked at 300 volts DC and their filaments consumed huge power) and its bulky power pack...what I later came to know as the optimum series-parallel Eveready Cell Combo...which was bigger than the Receiver itself, and had to be discarded every month and replaced by a new one...an expensive affair.
In 1958 I left Muthukur for my one-year Pre-University Course at a small town called Nidubrole and was living with my Principal-Uncle. He had a just-married wonderful daughter (my cousin elder by 3 years). Nidubrole had power and so we had a Murphy set plugged into the power-line...but it glowed and glowered all the same.
My Principal-Uncle had no time for listening to the radio except the AIR English News at 9 PM read by Melville de Mello (I never could follow his grand accent those days). The news ended by 9.15 and my Uncle dozed off by 9.14...he was a lark and got up at 4 AM when his alarm rang disturbing the rest of us.
But my Didi (who was an apprentice home-maker) never cared for the drab and dull AIR with all its serious Govt programs....like Krishi Darshan of the later Doordarshan. She always tuned the set to Radio Ceylon.
The Cold War was at its height and the US and its allies surrounded the Soviet Block countries by NATO, SEATO, CENTO and such other military alliances. And wanted to rope in the just-liberated India into its fold. But Nehru was a Fabian Socialist and had a soft corner for Russia and so he set up what was called Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), dead as dodo now. So, he rejected the US bear-hug offer. But Ceylon and Pakistan had no qualms. So, the US was allowed by the Ceylonese Government to set up on its soil an ultra-powerful radio broadcasting station to launch the External Services of the Voice of America (VOA), beamed into India.
To entice Indian audiences, Radio Ceylon used its VOA transmitter to belt out Hindi Film songs most of the day and night. They were interactive...they had a Listeners' Request Program...you just write a post-card asking for your favorite song to be played and it will be done in your name. And Uncle Sam being a businessman, Radio Ceylon took in a lot of advertisements..."Rexona...the ONLY soap with Cadyll"...no one knew what Cadyll was and whether it was good or bad for their skin...no matter...they bought it.
The high point of Radio Ceylon was the Wednesday Night 8-9 PM program called Binaca Geet Mala hosted by the legendary Amin Sayani. With a Hit-Parade...none of us knew what it meant but no matter. It took 30 years for AIR to launch its own Hindi Music channel with ads calling itself Vividh Bharati...a poor imitation.
As soon as there was this announcement following the Binaca Geet Mala: "This is Voice Of America" in a Yankee accent, everyone would switch off their sets and go to bed...so poor were VOA's own propaganda programs.
By the time I reached IIT KGP in 1965, I started hearing about BBC World News (maybe 24 hours in several languages including Hindi) and an exclusive English News Channel. And the hot and bulky desktop tube sets running on 220 volts gave way to pocket transistors.
Prof MSS had a pocket transistor which was always tuned to BBC...he was a fan of BBC. And I used to taunt him for his lack of patriotism. And he would say that AIR news is bluffy...if a train accident takes place and AIR puts the figure of the dead at 20, he would say, it would be more like 200...
On the morning of 31 October 1984, the day Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her security guards, her surviving son, Rajiv Gandhi, was not in Delhi. He was touring West Bengal-Orissa. The big guns of Delhi wanted to reach him to convey the news of her death asking him to return to Delhi asap. But they couldn't reach him since he was on the pock-marked roads of Midnapore canvassing for Congress.
Someone told Rajiv when he reached the next village that his mom was shot at. That was all the news the blessed AIR gave out. But Rajiv knew better. So, he pulled out his pocket transistor which was always tuned to BBC World News and got to know that Indiraji was dead...
AIR confirmed her death six hours later, after Rajiv reached Delhi by an Armed Forces plane...
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In the whole village there was only one household which boasted of a Battery-Murphy Set (Philips was twice as costly). We kids used to flock to their house every Sunday afternoon for the one-hour children's program in Telugu called Baalanandam (or some such goofy thing). It was broadcast from the studios of AIR, Madras, and had a middle-aged male and a female Radio Jockey (a phrase now notorious in the Aussie fiasco). They were called: Radio Annayya (Radio Dada) and Radio Akkayya (Radio Didi). Lots of kids' songs, inane plays, story-telling sessions by unfortunate kids, letter-reading ("we want more patriotic songs"), all punctuated by very condescending jockeying in fake children's lingo ("choo choo choo") by the underpaid RJs.
I was riveted to the glowing set itself (the back-flap had a hundred holes for ventilation...the red-hot vacuum tubes worked at 300 volts DC and their filaments consumed huge power) and its bulky power pack...what I later came to know as the optimum series-parallel Eveready Cell Combo...which was bigger than the Receiver itself, and had to be discarded every month and replaced by a new one...an expensive affair.
In 1958 I left Muthukur for my one-year Pre-University Course at a small town called Nidubrole and was living with my Principal-Uncle. He had a just-married wonderful daughter (my cousin elder by 3 years). Nidubrole had power and so we had a Murphy set plugged into the power-line...but it glowed and glowered all the same.
My Principal-Uncle had no time for listening to the radio except the AIR English News at 9 PM read by Melville de Mello (I never could follow his grand accent those days). The news ended by 9.15 and my Uncle dozed off by 9.14...he was a lark and got up at 4 AM when his alarm rang disturbing the rest of us.
But my Didi (who was an apprentice home-maker) never cared for the drab and dull AIR with all its serious Govt programs....like Krishi Darshan of the later Doordarshan. She always tuned the set to Radio Ceylon.
The Cold War was at its height and the US and its allies surrounded the Soviet Block countries by NATO, SEATO, CENTO and such other military alliances. And wanted to rope in the just-liberated India into its fold. But Nehru was a Fabian Socialist and had a soft corner for Russia and so he set up what was called Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), dead as dodo now. So, he rejected the US bear-hug offer. But Ceylon and Pakistan had no qualms. So, the US was allowed by the Ceylonese Government to set up on its soil an ultra-powerful radio broadcasting station to launch the External Services of the Voice of America (VOA), beamed into India.
To entice Indian audiences, Radio Ceylon used its VOA transmitter to belt out Hindi Film songs most of the day and night. They were interactive...they had a Listeners' Request Program...you just write a post-card asking for your favorite song to be played and it will be done in your name. And Uncle Sam being a businessman, Radio Ceylon took in a lot of advertisements..."Rexona...the ONLY soap with Cadyll"...no one knew what Cadyll was and whether it was good or bad for their skin...no matter...they bought it.
The high point of Radio Ceylon was the Wednesday Night 8-9 PM program called Binaca Geet Mala hosted by the legendary Amin Sayani. With a Hit-Parade...none of us knew what it meant but no matter. It took 30 years for AIR to launch its own Hindi Music channel with ads calling itself Vividh Bharati...a poor imitation.
As soon as there was this announcement following the Binaca Geet Mala: "This is Voice Of America" in a Yankee accent, everyone would switch off their sets and go to bed...so poor were VOA's own propaganda programs.
By the time I reached IIT KGP in 1965, I started hearing about BBC World News (maybe 24 hours in several languages including Hindi) and an exclusive English News Channel. And the hot and bulky desktop tube sets running on 220 volts gave way to pocket transistors.
Prof MSS had a pocket transistor which was always tuned to BBC...he was a fan of BBC. And I used to taunt him for his lack of patriotism. And he would say that AIR news is bluffy...if a train accident takes place and AIR puts the figure of the dead at 20, he would say, it would be more like 200...
On the morning of 31 October 1984, the day Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her security guards, her surviving son, Rajiv Gandhi, was not in Delhi. He was touring West Bengal-Orissa. The big guns of Delhi wanted to reach him to convey the news of her death asking him to return to Delhi asap. But they couldn't reach him since he was on the pock-marked roads of Midnapore canvassing for Congress.
Someone told Rajiv when he reached the next village that his mom was shot at. That was all the news the blessed AIR gave out. But Rajiv knew better. So, he pulled out his pocket transistor which was always tuned to BBC World News and got to know that Indiraji was dead...
AIR confirmed her death six hours later, after Rajiv reached Delhi by an Armed Forces plane...
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