In
1972 or so my Father bought a Murphy Mayfair Radio a sample of which is shown
above along with its antenna. My father was busy putting two nails on the wall
to tie the antenna and from thence started a fine form of entertainment at
home.It cost Rs.400/- I think then which was a sizeable amount by those
standards. My father wanted his children to listen to the English news everyday
so that we could improve our stand in the language.
With
time this equipment became a part and parcel of our lives. It was a vacuum tube
radio as transistor radios were yet to come into the market.My mother had a
special fascination for Kannada songs and would at times appreciate the
creative content in the songs.
Early
morning six or so my mother used to switch on this wonderful peice and would
tune in the Bangalore AIR station where devotional songs were played for some
time followed by Raitharige Salahey (which means advice to Farmers).I used to
very often wake up hearing this.
Most
of the time we tuned into the commercial channel of AIR where hindi song
programmes were aired every now and then during the day and to a large extent
my brother and myself we grew up hearing these songs though we did not know
what it meant. There is no hindi song worth the salt we have not heard during
this era. My fervent desire at this age was to learn to speak the Hindi
language and understand it.
Somehow
for some unknown reason slowly this equipment faded out of our lives after more
than ten years may be because of the growth of Television. But this Radio made
our lives happy and the home was full of all kinds of music for more than a
decade.
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