by Anupama Krishnakumar
My earliest memories of the radio in its physical form is that of a rectangular box about two and a half feet wide and a little over half a feet high with a big fat circular projection which I now understand as the tuner and a smaller one that was the volume control. The panel of numbers was almost as wide as the radio set itself and I remember enjoying the silent thrill of turning the tuner and watching the needle move over the numbers indicating various frequencies. It was a Philips radio.
My paternal grandmother used to be an AIR Tirucharapalli Carnatic vocal artiste and would also take part in talk shows on radio. Both my grandfathers would listen to cricket commentaries and news bulletins with their ears glued to the little transistors or pocket radios that they treasured. The sight of my grandfathers lying down on their easy chairs and relaxing with a radio whose antenna stood high is a rather poetic image that has found its place in some of my stories. Even today, the radio is the primary source of classical music for my grandparents.
Given my parents’ inclination towards music, it is hardly surprising that they also were typical radio addicts who listened to old Hindi and Tamil songs (and occasionally Malayalam songs too) through popular programmes in the radio. The Binaca Geetmala used to be a favourite. A radio, big or small, was an inevitable presence in our house and pretty much the source of music around which much of our mornings revolved. In the early 90s, when I was still in school, I remember that our breakfast was never complete without listening to Tamil film hits off the little Philips transistor that stood at the centre of the dining table. The introductory music to that 8 AM programme that we would regularly listen to is still glued to my memory.
However, once I moved out of home to graduate and later work, the radio did disappear from my life. Cassettes, CDs and much later, the iPod dominated my listening hours except for a brief while when the radio found its way back during my post-graduation days. And now after all these years, with the birth of my daughter, the radio has slowly regained its presence in my life. And how! My three-month-old daughter is ready to fall asleep only when the radio is on in the nights! She just wouldn’t listen to anything else. And thanks to this habit that she has got into, I get to listen to some really good old Hindi hits and of course favourites for a good three hours on the Sony transistor.
There’s something absolutely relaxing about listening to the radio in the nights. I am often taken back to the times when I would fall asleep with the radio next to me playing soothing numbers, during my days as a post-graduation student. I am not quite sure why this is the case, but, despite having almost all of my favourite compositions in different languages as playlists on various devices (as opposed to the fact that the radio used to be the only source of music many years ago), the radio has its unique charm. This is perhaps due to that small element of surprise that a radio list throws into your listening time. They may be songs you know but still there’s someone else sitting there deciding what you will get to hear; or the fact that you share your love for those songs with a bunch of strangers albeit music lovers. And night programmes being virtually ad free, the joy is unbounded.
And so my tryst with the radio continues despite several technological advances that make the experience of enjoying music close to your heart, sheer pleasure. With so many FM stations springing up and many youngsters choosing a career in the radio space, there are reasons to believe that the radio, despite the several alterations in the music listening landscape, is here to stay – as a reminder of good old music listening ways.
Anupama Krishnakumar loves Physics and English and sort of managed to get degrees in both – studying Engineering and then Journalism. Yet, as she discovered a few years ago, it is the written word that delights her soul and so here she is, doing what she loves to do – spinning tales for her small audience and for her little son, singing lullabies to her little daughter, bringing together a lovely team of creative people and spearheading Spark. She loves books, music, notebooks and colour pens and truly admires simplicity in anything! Tomatoes send her into a delightful tizzy, be it in soup or rasam or ketchup or atop a pizza!
True! There’s such a charm in these little things. Which kind of explains the reason why they still reside in our memories. I remember dozing off into afternoons with the soft music of the radio playing beside my bed. It gave me a strange sense of comfort and peace, something headphones or iPods don’t. I guess it is because they are mostly available in transition and in excess which kind of demeans their importance. Regards.