After all that running around in the morning and forgetting to eat an apple (that was going to keep the doctor away,) I finally managed to hit the road to office. Of late I developed an addiction- listening to radio when on road and the addiction is so profound that even when there’s some company, I would rather listen to radio than indulge in a conversation.
Since a week I am listening to Rainbow FM. Around 9.30 am they play songs in Hindi, Telugu, English and sometimes Tamil too, some new and some old melodies. Initially I felt it was not listenable the way songs went from one language to another and one genre to the other, but slowly I started enjoying them and will continue to do so I hope…
The RJ on the show however speaks this funny English, passable Hindi and atrocious Telugu – may be this is how a jack of all arts and master of none sounds. The icing on the cake is this news reader who does not fail to read news headlines for two minutes (sometime between 9.55am and 10am) in a language that sounds remotely ‘Telugu.’ Amusing in the first instance, but is definitely irritating when you are subjected to the torture everyday morning.
It is but an indication of the fate of the language that is called the “Italian of the East.” For those of us who wonder how the language got its title, here’s an excerpt from wikipedia - “British authors in the 19th century called Telugu the “Italian of the East” as all the words in Telugu end with a vowel sound, but it is believed that Italian explorer Niccolò Da Conti coined the phrase in the 15th century. Conti visited Vijayanagara Empire during the reign of Vira Vijaya Bukka Raya in 1520s.”
Coming back to the modern day travails - I definitely expect better quality from this Radio station that is run by “All India Radio.” Meanwhile I shall continue to enjoy music and try and ignore the Jockey of all languages.
