encounter of the rj kind

Yesterday evening, being ಯುಗಾದಿ (Ugadi ), there was a question on RadioCity FM 91 on what bevu bella means. For a change I actually keyed in the answer and, very unexpectedly, got a call by Sunayna saying that I’d be on air in a minute, to get away from the radio, and stay on the line…!

I was surprised to hear the song Dil Se that I could hear on the radio also being played in the background through my cellphone… why was I surprised? After seeing radio jockeys on TV I’d somehow thought they work inside soundproof glass rooms, and hence only know what song they’re playing if they put on their headphones but otherwise the sound dosen’t get mixed up, but apparently it wasn’t the case!

I was in front of my house listening to the car radio with one of my close friends and my mom – they were pretty enthusiastic about it – though I don’t know why, putting up with me directly wasn’t enough they had to listen to me on the radio as well – but well atleast as the cliche joke goes – they had an option of turning it off 😉

So following Sunayna’s instructions, I walked away from the car, my heart was beating very fast… I was really nervous… I wondered how people manage to speak on the radio so confidently! The street was perfect for the situation, very calm and not a sound – leaving me alone with me… and my nervousness! I barely managed to not get caught up in it and in a few moments it mostly passed away leaving me relatively relaxed!

When I did come online it didn’t matter at all, Derius the RJ who was speaking to me in his usual enthusiastic tone… asking me to explain my answer.

Now while sending answers, a whole lot of people send in the right answers, but once Sunayna had remarked earlier that the answers that had some extra information was usually the one that got noticed, so I’d sent in a bit of explanation along with my answer.

bevu is Kannada for neem, bella is for jaggery. On this festival of Ugadi, we mix bitter neem leaves and sweet jaggery – to remind us of the significance of accepting both aspects with equanimity and eating with a smile.

He was pretty thrilled that I’d used the word ‘equanimity’! There was a brief conversation where he asked me what I do, I said I’m an engineer in a software company but then remembering this, I added that that’s only one of the things I do. He asked what else and I just mentioned writing and photography among other things, didn’t want to get into a long list. He suggested trying out being an RJ as well, and said something really funny which I can’t recall now… not a bad idea actually. Finally I was informed I’d be contacted for my Rs 2000 prize, and that was about it.

After that, one thought came to me about being an RJ – as usual I was a tubelight* character – it came after the call was over! Anyway thats what blogs are for 😉 …

All of us in different professions are being paid to do our jobs, and its the same thing with an RJ as well. But on the other hand, there’s one unique thing about their job, they’re always making people happy! I felt really happy speaking to both Sunayna as well as Derise, as if they were old friends I knew all the time! 😀 I think even if everyone can’t become RJs, it might not be a bad idea to try and carry the spirit of an RJ – the infectious enthusiasm and smile (that you can feel through their words though we can’t see it) in our respective jobs as well!

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* tubelight – a tubelight is something that flickers for a while before it comes on, and in local terminology we call people who take time to get a joke, or who take too long to say something, etc as tubelights 😀