All India Radio : My Childhood friend (part-1)

Grandpa could brook any nonsense but the English news broadcast. As soon as the announcer says "within a shortwhile, you can listen to Englsih News - Delhi relay", our grandpa's index finger will be on the switch. The beep sounds before the news starts, somehow sounded so bad to the grandfather. He never allowed the beep sounds to complete. Still, we could here, at times, the first sentence by the news reader - This is all India Radio, The news, Read by...Grandpa's intention was clear - he shall not allow any of our family members to be exposed to a language that sounded just like Greek and Latin!

Those days, having a radio in a house was a luxury. It is just a good surprise to know that the radios needed licence. We had to pay a small amount to the Panchayat for owning a 'modern gadget' like a valve radio. Transitor radios were yet to make their presence. A radio was like A big box becasue all the components were based on electrical principle rater than electronics. Radios were called Valve radios thoses days. I still remember, employees from the panchayat roam around in our village to collect tax for the radio and issue licence. It was a source of income for the panchayats. 

Hold your breath, to receive another surprise. Bicycles too needed licence! Bicycles were a rare commodity when we were going to schools. Not even a single kid came to school on a cycle. We trekked more than three kilometers everyday to reach school. Several others too did walk from farther places to the schools. Licence for a cycle too was aimed  at augmenting money for the panchayat. Cycle owners always feared police if they did not have licence. It may look so strange now. We learnt cycling by hiring 'half cycles' from the nearby town Poochakkal.  People in our village may not turn their heads even a BMW car rolls along our road in the present days!

Let me come back to the humble valve radio. This Murphy radio was brought by our father from Visakhapatnam. Along with this, he brought a gramaphone too. We had a number of discs that contained so many hit songs of yesteryears. The most important programmes in the radio was film songs, dramas, "katha prasangam" and of course Kathakali music recitals. Grandpa always relished the kathakali music. Most of the time, English news followed his favorite programme. So, he never wanted to spoil the mood with something alien to all of us. Even if he allowed the radio to tell the news in Englsih, none of us would have undestood a single sentence. Honestly, I never could make out anything the news readers told, till I reached the professional college. So pathetic was our knoledge in English those days. Remember those epic battles with the usages like 'not only...but also; so that...not; no sooner...than' ? At least a few of the readers of this story will definitely identify with this.  Most of time we fell down with bloody noses!

Renjini was a one hour programme that broadcasted super hit film songs based on demand by the listeners. It was a real entertainer and we usually waited anxiously for the next Ranjini day. I learnt most of those old golden songs, memories of which still soothe my soul, through such programmes. 

The most remarkable part of the radio listening experience was Light Music. As the name indicates, these were simple lyrics,  closer to a poem, rendered by mostly amature singers accompanied by simple music instruments. Of course, the most famous among the light music songs were sung by none other than K J Yesudas. "Ghana Shyama Sandhya Hrudayam" is one of the best light music songs that was ever made. This song still lingers on even after several years of its birth. This song was invariably sung in any competition and every music teacher in every school attempted to teach this song to the children. Such was the beauty of this song. 

Lalithaganam (light music) had seperate time slots and there were even music classes on air those days. Broadcast of light music classes taken by renouned music directors were an integral part of raio listening. My eldest brother had a habit of writing down these songs. As soon as the announcement comes about the begining of light music songs, he will be ready with papers and pen. He writes the lyrics with lightning speed, though it looked too vague to read. He then copied to a book in good hand writing. There was a big collection of such songs in his possession.




Now, the valve radio is gone. So is the 'Lalitha gaanam', the light music. Still, the sweet memories of both still linger on in the hearts that were touched the most, in their every day lives once upon a time....