CHANGE IN THE AIR

Travel has never been my forte. Journeys within the city are more tedious with the complex jams, fraying tempers and most of all the effect on one's state of body and mind. Society developed by man has cast an unfair chore on mankind of being in gainful employment measured by status, money and such man made parameters that one is constrained to undertake this task on a daily basis. The other animals in the animal kingdom may predominantly be occupied in nesting activity, hunting food, storing food for a rainy day and attending to there beauty sleep. Some species are more gifted in as much as having the luxury of a period of hibernation when the only activity indulged in is that of sleeping.

Travel sometimes is made pleasant by the mode of transport by tuning in to soft music. The melody in the tunes take away the pain of travel to a great extent. The advent of FM radios have made this experience all the more delightful. The talent of radio jockeys in keeping the listeners hooked to the music they host often made me wonder about the way things would be organised for them to hold the listeners attention. On one such occasion as I remarked about the versatility of these jockeys , a lady colleague of mine spoke at length about the desire of her daughter to be in this field and the reservations expressed by her husband who was also a colleague of mine. The notes exchanged on a couple of occasions made me venture to the father figure that I would love to be in the profession but for the voice of the "nightingale" bestowed on to me at the time of manufacture. After a hearty laugh, and a few days later, I came to know that he had reluctantly allowed his daughter to be in the profession of her choice.

The knowledge exhibited by me prevented me from enquiring about the niceties of the profession for fear that the cat would be out of the bag. Years later, I happened to have an occasion to befriend another radio jockey. Our friendship flowered on blow hot blow cold basis for sometime and then the great day came when I was invited to be in the studio when the show was presented. I was on time for the slot and sat through the show like a high school student while being a child at heart discovering the simple ways by which the show was made great. The skill in presenting the programme was awesome and I was spell bound. The fact that in a bare room with a microphone and a display panel, the anchor being able to bring out so many emotions which enthral the listener was beyond belief. If this could be the state of art studios of today, one wonders how the father figure of anchors on radio shows, Ameen Sayani would have brought out that element in the irreplaceable Geetmala. The anchor of the show did notice a change in my attitude but was not able to place the reason. I left it unresolved but the exhilarating experience enriched me and made me look at new avenues for a change.