Radio Memories

For years the devotional songs on the radio was my alarm clock in the morning. My mother always switched the radio on first thing in the morning. I don't know if it was Madras A or Vivitha Bharti. My mother still insists the program in the radio always told her the time and made her stay organized during busy mornings of the week.
7:30 AM - Sangeet Sarita. This program was about "Shastriya Sangeet". For the longest time, I didn't know what the term meant and I always thought "raag yaman" sounded funny. Imagine a raagam named yaman, I thought. Just when this pogram began, Appa used to leave for work.
7:40 AM - Rangavali. They played nice old hindi songs. I guess that kind of programmed our system to listen to old hindi melodies to day.
8:00 AM - Bhakti paadalgal. Nagoor Hanifa songs were very good. We listened to assorted hindu, christian and muslim religious songs then for 10 minutes. When the second song played, my mother left for work. It was always 8:10. 5 minutes of commericials/ads and then our favourite program started.
8:15 AM - Ungal viruppam. I have a feeling no program has ever had a following as big as this one had in Madras. Not even today's radio mirchi.

A brief introduction to Ungal Viruppam wouldn't be out of place now. Readers write to the station asking for a specific song. If many readers ask for a particular song, they play the song. Just before playing, the announcer reads a big list of names - the names of the people who had requested that song. There were no e-mails and even phones were rare then. So interested parties buy a postcard, write a request and mail it. My brother and I always paid close attention to that name list. The name "ICF Aasai Thambi" was the oft-repeated one. "Wow!" we always exclaimed, "He must be the most popular guy in the city. His name is on every song". We were kids then. I wonder where Aasai thambi is now!

Dear ICF Aasai Thambi,

I don't know if the program "Ungal Viruppam" is still alive. But I sincerely hope you are. You probably moved out of ICF colony and bought a house in Anna Nagar or Perambur or Avadi. Thats because I can't imagine you living anywhere outside Chennai. Was writing requests to the station your full-time job then? If not, I salute your enthusiasm. I am sure you are net savvy now. Do you mail all your friends, acquaitances with such alacrity? Sometimes I wish you had a blog. And maybe you'd make a post on the number of songs you had requested, the number played and such statistics for followers like my brother and me. When I come across sites such as this where you request a song and they'd play it for you, I often think of you.

I digressed. Radio was always blaring in the mornings in every flat in the colony we lived in. Wonder if people even listen to anything other than FM radio these days. I listen to talk radio while driving. And everytime I switch on the radio, the memories of the AM radio mornings "flash upon that inward eye, which is a bliss of solitude".