Aastha Sinha
Akashvani is the national public radio broadcaster of India established in 1936 as a division of Prasar Bharti. While our generation didnt get a chance to listen to radio much, our parents have a deep rooted emotional connect with the All India Radio.
As I asked my parents about Akashvani, they truly got nostalgic. After all, radio was their only source of entertainment as a child. Radio was a very popular source of mass media for the longest time. People would gather around a single radio set to listen to news, music, commentary or whatever would be played on it. My dad reminsced about how the streets would go silent during cricket matches and everyone would eagerly wait for Sushil Doshi’s commentary which used to be so interesting such that people could actually imagine the match being played before their eyes. It was perhaps better than any other commentary that we get to listen on television today. He also talked about radio dramas that would be telecasted where full fledged dramas would take place but without any visuals. It makes me so fascinated to even think how a drama could be “recited” and not “acted”.
As a child, my mother would eagerly wait for Binaca Geetmala that was hosted by Ameen Sayani every Wednesday from 8 P.M. onwards on which the Top 10 songs would be played and was the primary source of popular film music on radio for the Indian subcontinent. She also recalled how Mahalya songs would be played early in the morning on the day of Mahalya which would make the air quite sacred and pure. They would also listen to the BBC News telecasted in the evening on which both national and international news were read out. They were also the first ones to break the news of Indira Gandhi’s death.
It can be rightly said that Akashvani is indeed an emotion for our preceeding generations. While we have so many advanced mass mediums today such as television and smart phone, the enjoyment that radio brought to them could never be matched.
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