My association with All India Radio AIR Calicut

I had some long drawn association with All India Radio Calicut whilst being a student and it happened in an unexpected way. One afternoon while walking through thru E Hostel met ChandraShekar or Chandra as he was known.( Chandra had done his Masters degree from IISc and left for the US in 1986.The last I heard about him was from Kallol Roy in Mumbai in 1999.) Chandra told me that AIR Calicut was badly looking for some people to contribute to their "Calling the Youth" program  and if he could recommend my name. Before long I got a letter from AIR to talk on some topic for ten minutes. I don't know or remember what the topic was now but made some quick preparations and was at the AIR office on Beach road. I was taken to the station manager Mr. Ravindran to whom I showed the script and before long was led to the recording studio where I narrated what I had to and it came out very well. It was nice to listen to my voice on the radio when it was broadcast some time later. Few days down the line I got some remuneration for this work

Few months down the line I was even more intensely  associated with this program and the AIR Kozhikode - getting a half an hour slot to conduct a JAM session. I was the moderator. Those of you who do not know what a JAM session means ...participants would be given one minute to speak on some weird topic with some rules. The literary and debating club of REC would regularly conduct such events of which I was a participant and had some first hand experience. This program is something to remember as many of my batch mates were involved some six of them ..I remember Raghuvaran was there , Sarah was one of the lady participants and for full half an hour the recording studio of AIR Calicut /Kozhikode was all ours. We happened to listen to this broadcast sitting in the C hostel.

The last time I met Mr. Ravindram the station manager of AIR Calicut was in 1985 on an unscheduled drive with the nephew of my father Dr. Janardhanan  from Cannanore to Calicut and he had some work at the AIR office for a brief while. Ravindran almost instantly acknowledged my presence and we spent some time during this sojourn.

I still believe I can do some program like a talk show or the like for AIR Kozhikode just to replicate and enliven those few years where I had some association with this place and also noting with candor that the first remuneration in a formal sense for some work I did came from none other than the Honorable Govt of India through the ALL INDIA RADIO CALICUT.