Afternoon Rasam With me RJ Aishu

“Andha puli saadhathula en pa puliye illa…” Cross talk… This was how my evenings would start on every weekday. As soon as I wrapped up my work and board the bus, I would plug in my headsets and click the radio icon. I used to look forward to this part of my day as I enjoyed listening to the radio during my 2 hours travel after a tiring day. I never used to sleep in buses…tried many a time but never worked. So the radio became my routine. I’ll be looking out of the window observing outside, muting the noises and dubbing it with my radio’s music. Why this sudden mosquito coil flashback post from me? Heavy rain….standing in the patio (Amreeekan lingo for balcony) sipping hot pepper rasam (lunchtime people… But I have to drink something to complete the scene else it would be a dheiva kuttham), I watched the trees going green in rain (poet-u Aishu) with ‘Narumugaiye‘ song playing in the background followed by a base-voiced-RJ talking about life, the universe and everything 😉 For a few minutes I was transported back to my good-old-bus days. Of course, my teacher has taught me shaaaaaaaring. That’s why I’m here to share the walk down the memory lane with you readers 😛

I used to go by van to school (scene info- imagine a kutty Aishu with hairband, curly ruffled boy-cut hair, grey-white uniform starring outside holding the bag tighly like a kid on lap). They played the radio till my school… It used to produce a goiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnn feedback sound followed by Vivid Barathi seidhigal (news) where a monotonous guy would read the news like he is a zombie who was awakened from a graveyard to read this news and after this, he was going right back. Else it would be a crew of five people (isai virundhu by Vidya Barathi matrum kuzhivinar) competing with each other to put us to sleep. They would have succeeded 98% before we reached school as most of them would just drop down asleep…India’s very own pied-pipers. Even such boring sessions wouldn’t deter me…I would wait for my favourite Rathna stores ad in between as I found it funny (God knows why)… I used to giggle alone as soon as the guy in the ad said ‘Enna Kamala… veetla fan odalaiya? Namma Ratna stores irukura po enna kavala?’

We had this Sony double cassette hifi radio that had many fancy buttons which I saw only whenever I had to dust 🙄 The most vivid memory is after my tenth boards, I saw posters of two new radio channels being launched- Suryan FM and Radio Mirchi 98.3… I didn’t know how to tune but was curious to listen. When my dad came home for lunch, I took the radio to him and asked him to show me and we tuned 98.3 Radio mirchi…I was super excited as no zombie news reader or pied-piper-crew… They had so many programmes. Radio and books became my habit during that vacation… After vacation, the first day in my van, I was expecting zombie’s voice but…Taddaaa… ‘You are listening to Hello Chennai with me RJ Suchi’ *chandler dance* I was a bit sad about missing my fav ad as it is a new-funda-station with yo yo people but then when ads began ‘Enna Kamala… veetla fan odalaiya? Namma Ratna stores irukura po enna kavala?’… LOL 😀

Have you heard of voice crush? There was this show Heart-2-Heart with me Gautham. There was this base-voice-RJ with a magical voice lured the crowd with his tanglish…it was the time when VJ Craig and others were ruling the small screen popularizing the Tanglish lingo… This show used to be a late night show and I stayed awake just to listen to that show. He was very popular among all girls as I remember we used to play in radio in hostel room loudly…we used to take turns to hold the radio in that particular angle as radio frequency was bad and would disrupt in case of disturbance. We used to gather around and listen to Heart-2-Heart- with me Gautham and go Chaa when they cut him and played songs 😀

Whenever there was a power cut or storm alert or tsunami alert, my dad used to change batteries to the red transistor that we had to keep it handy. We used to listen to zombie girl saying ‘Cyclone is 1000 km away from Chennai and moving towards Vizag. Schools will remain closed.’ It will be dark and pouring (it was the time when even Chennai got rain as Ramanan predicted it would be sunny) with candlelight flickering, I would be playing shadow-shadow making various creatures on wall while my dad used to keep tuning to various radio stations to listen to the same english/Tamil news again and again. Even after few years, the radio routine continued but with a difference. My dad (even today) listens to Illayaraja songs late in the night. That’s his me-time. He used to switch off all lights and sit in the balcony with his kutty radio playing Nee-Naan Raja sir. At times if I wasn’t sleepy I would go and join him. He would narrate the story behind every song that’s being played and then I would drift off to sleep. Today when I listen to every song in radio, I think of a related incident…For eg, after a long time as I’m writing this para, ‘Mayiliragae song’ is being played in Radio city… When this song was released, I forcefully made this my mom’s favourite song and SJ Suriya, her favourite hero 😆 Whenever this song played, I used to shout for her and when she comes from the kitchen and sees, I used to laugh hysterically falling on floor 😆

Like I mentioned, all my morning/evening travels in the bus was made complete with my me-time with radio. I used to participate actively in all radio shows…when they say call 98398324444…I will be the first person to dial and opine my views on air… I always had a secret wish to become an RJ as I love talking about random topics without bothering to get a response from the other end 😛 Many a time my call would be featured and I (only me) would hear and jump with joy 😛 RJ Balaji playing a vital role for that secret wish. I used to wait throughout the day to hear the Take it easy with me, RJ Balajee.. Todadonton tontabanton toin… With bokkunu vaila kutthanum, congratulations of the kamakshi purushan, panjummitta thala, Ada…Cha buttons…my evenings were made fun. In a way, he inspired my writings. I imbibed humour and sarcasm from such sources. It made my posts funny and quirky effortlessly. Will you believe I listen to tamil commentary in IPLs for his Hooodibaba and Malhotra–jis?I break out laughing in the tensest situation 😛

Maruthi suzuki Traffic beat (as I type this, I re-play it in the same tune as it features in the radio) was my google map and I used to text my dad ‘Traffic is slow moving in Santhome high road… Avoid it.’ I lifted my collar when he used to ask ‘wow…how did you know?’ RJ Balaji would have pressed that ‘Ada!’ button now 😆 But when it comes to my mom…the button is always cha…There was some ladies programme in the noon which I happened to listen during my half-day- exam-day and they gave some cooking tips which I proudly went and told my mom… She quickly dismissed it, ‘Ada chi loosu! Who does that! give your question paper first.’ *monkey-closed-eyes*