Old Age Pastimes

 How do you spend time when you get old and less mobile?

Some of the activities you were used to including going out, may be difficult. So how do you pass your time?

Here are some idle thoughts-

Read. You can re-read books that you may have read long before. Including favourite authors. The newspaper delivers something new every day, and keeps you abreast of what is happening.

Talk to people- on phone, or in person. They may be your friends, family or whoever. Once in a day or two. Make a video  call on Meet, or Zoom with your kids if they live elsewhere.

Listen to the radio. It's great for listening to any songs you like. Or buy a Carvaan type device with a lot of stored songs.

Walk around, either in your housing society garden, or any other suitable space where it is safe.

TV? I would not recommend it. Maybe watch a movie on Youtube or an OTT channel. That is usually more satisfying.

If you are actually mobile, you have more options, like volunteering, guest lecturing or other ways to occupy yourself.

Music and Me

 I have grown up with film music-Hindi. And still love the older songs. Added some ghazal and non-film music due to various influences, but film songs continue to be my first love, due to the longer association. I am a regular radio listener, and as I write this, am listening to Amit Khanna, lyricist, present a special Jaimala on Vividh Bharathi.

He is most known for songs like Chalte Chalte, mere ye geet yaad rakhna (Bappi Lahiri tuned it), and I like many of his songs from Des Pardes or other Dev Anand films. Dev Anand persuaded him to come into Mumbai, and films.

Songs that made an impact on me were mostly Kishore Kumar in my younger days. It may be a coincidence, but I am only 3 hours from where he grew up-Khandwa.

Red FM Interview at Indore

 To close the year 2022, I had an interesting experience yesterday-the 29th. I was interviewed, about Prestige University's offerings, as their Vice Chancellor, by the radio station Red FM. At their studio. This will be aired on Sunday Jan. 1st.

The radio station staff was very warm, and it was fun interacting with all of them. The host Shreya, and me...

Writer Basti

 That's the name of a colony (basti is a colony) we lived in in the small coal-mining town, ages ago. In general, life in the towns was slow, devoid of any major city-style entertainment. But I was fixated on the radio, and later, the gramophone records. The Club where we socialised and played Badminton or went swimming took care of the rest. The radio had cricket commentary and news too, so it was the Google of yesteryear for us. Plus Youtube, minus the videos.

We were there mostly in the summer holidays, and we played a lot of Bridge with friends and parents too. So we were happy and carefree, though the heat reached the high forties Celsius quite often. Sometimes, movies were an outing, and at others, a trip to the river. The Godavari was not too far from one of our homes.

Recently, we caught up with some old friends from that era, so this is nostalgia born out of that meeting.

Radio

 Even after TV and digital media came around, radio remains a favourite of mine. Starting from around 1970, the radio was always on in our house, and KL Saigal had the last word in Purane filmon ke geet on Radio Ceylon (later, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corp.). The same channel used to broadcast Aap hi ke Geet from 8 am to 9 am, and Binaca Geet Mala, hosted by Ameen Sayani, on Wednesday nights. This was everybody's favourite, and we made it a point to listen in. It was a weekly countdown of top songs. My taste in Hindi film songs was shaped during the 70s, listening to Kishore, Rafi, and others-Hemant Kumar for instance-Bees Saal Baad had two great songs sung by him. 

Also a lot of SD Burman, RD Burman and lyricists like Neeraj, Sahir and Majrooh. The songs of Mere Jeevan Sathi and Kati Patang were a rage in the years they released, and are remembered to this day. Also Jewel Thief, Teesri Manzil, Jawani Diwani, Prem Pujari, Gambler and Hare Rama Hare Krishna..we grew up adoring Nasir Husain romcoms and his stage songs in Yaadon ki Baarat and Hum Kisise Kum Nahin. The theatres were grand too, and I remember watching Sholay in 70 mm at Hyderabad. (Also Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare).

Anyway, I switched to Vividh Bharati later, and they have great archives from that Golden Era of music. I continue to listen to the radio to this day.

Analog Versus Digital Life

My life was analog at the beginning. For one, I studied electrical engineering, not electronics engineering. I used dial-tuned radio/transistors which contained vacuum tube technology inside. I learnt how to take photographs on a regular camera, black and white at first.

I don't remember when I first used a computer seriously, but may have been around 1986 while in the U.S. I also remember seeing the first Apple computer in a friend's lab there in another department (we used IBM PCs and floppy discs in management-no mouse).

Slowly, the world changed. I turned digital like everyone else. So what's the big change? I think the greys gave way to ones and twos- that's the biggest change. Except my hair colour, that is. They are still grey, and will be, unless L'Oreal gives me a gift pack. But then, in my profession, the hair colour I have counts for something.

Raving About Ra

Ra is at the start of many historic things.

For one, Raga is an important part of Indian classical Music.

Rain brings us our food, and begins with Ra.

Rails are what trains run on..a great way to see the world.

Raatkali ek khwab mein aayi, aur gale ka haar bani...is a favourite song.

Rap is a form of music that keeps us young.

Radical change is needed to take us forward.

Rastafarian Bob Marley is the musician I like. Particularly "Buffalo Soldier.."

Radio is one of my favourite media..my love for music began with this, and continued through records, cassettes, CDs,...and back to radio along with Youtube.

It's just incidental that my name begins with Ra.

Brands I Grew Up With

Dalda- There was a shortage of this cooking oil most of the time.

Binny- Many clothes were made from this cloth brand.
Bata- Shoes invariably had to be Bata. Learnt much later that this was a company started by a Czech immigrant into the West.
Cadbury- the end of desire.
Chiclets- the first chewing gum that we had.

Tata- The trucks and buses we saw were either Tata or Ashok Leyland.
Godrej- They made locks and cupboards. Life's valuable possessions (few then) used to be under their lock and key.
Camlin- Oh, the excitement of a new compass box in school!

Taj Mahal- This was a Udipi restaurant in Hyderabad.
Kamat- and this too.
Modern- Mummy, mummy Modern Bread-an iconic ad.

Philips- Listened to marvelous songs on the Philips radio through the ages..Binaca Geet Mala, Bhoole bisre geet, Aap hi ke geet, Jaymala, Chhayageet, S. Kumar's ka Filmi Muqaddama, and many sponsored programs. Murphy with the iconic Baby ad was another big radio brand.
EC TV/Uptron TV- at home and at IIMB respectively. On the latter, watched in 1983 as India lifted the Prudential World Cup from the West Indies' hands.

Abids- High Street in Hyderabad for shoppers.
Chowpatty- The only one, in Mumbai. Bhel was made famous by it.

Ambassador- Travelling in it was rare, and we felt like royalty when we did travel in it.
Air India- The Maharaja was only aspirational. No air travel for the middle class, was the norm.
Jeans-any brand- The ultimate in cool.

The Positives

In the make-believe world that Arnab Goswami and others create for us every day, it is easy to get fooled into thinking that there are only Scams like Lalitgate happening around us. Even if they are, there are quite a few good things being attempted by the government of the day. Let us give them credit where they deserve it.

Digital Locker is a great idea that might be useful for a citizen to store his educational or any other govrnmental records such as license, passport, home registration etc. digitally. It is linked or operated through an Aadhar number and a mobile or email number, so it may be secure.

Clean India or Swachch Bharat campaign. It is the first time in many years that someone has raised the issues of cleanliness, and sanitation, through the Vidya Balan campaign running on TV and radio. That is something we badly need to seep into our consciousness. If we can eliminate spitting in even fifty years, I am all for it.

Great Inventions

These are on my list of my ten great inventions-

1. Chair-improved our lives and elevated us from the floor.
2. Spoon-gave us ways of using jars and stirring things up.
3. Radio-everything else pales before this. An infinite source of information, entertainment and joy. Accessible to the common man. Even Modi uses this to connect with people.
4. Pen and paper- how else would we have distinguished ourselves from animals? Books are an endless source of joy.
5. Aspirin- it cures something (headache) with certainty-with most other medicines, you are not really sure.
6. Homeopathy- again, accssible medicine, and despite what experts tell you, easy to learn and administer yourself. Cures at least a few known uncomfortable conditions.
7. Sarcasm- without it, life would be dry and humourless. By using this, we also make friends-and lose some. Keeps the wheel of life on an even keel.
8. Marriage-after laughter, this gets my vote as the next best thing. The twain cannot meet, usually, unfortunately. 
9. Blogging- you are already being subjected to this, so I shall not speak further on the subject-until my next.
10. Communism- a better fantasy is yet to be invented. 

 Some day, I will also list out the worst inventions.

Small pleasures

It is no secret that the small pleasures are capable of brightening your day far more than a jackpot that you may keep dreaming about. Some of these that I have encountered in recent times (and I am grateful for)-

A call, an email or a facebook contact from an unexpected source.

A long chat over coffee with a friend.

Meeting a fan of my textbook. We were sitting next to each other at a seminar.

A song that plays on radio, just when you were thinking about it.

A nice speech. Modi made one in Parliament that was excellent oratory after a long time. Why should parliament be boring?

A repartee. Sometimes it's better than a party.

An unexpected encounter. Met Amol Palekar at IHC. He was exhibiting his paintings.

Playing a computer game with a kid. I played a couple with my niece.

A nice conversation at the lunch table with colleagues. Happens frequently.

Unexpected weather. It's been raining almost every month at Indore this year.

Watching TV after a long time. I watched a few crime serials like Monk, NCIS (?) and Blue Bloods after a while, along with some Big Bang Theory, and quite enjoyed them. 

Also joined a group of like minded fans of Hindi film music through an old student of mine from XIMB.

Attended a rehearsal for The Importance of Being Earnest being staged by a colleague here. Great fun. Reminded me of Wating for Lefty that we had staged at IIMB years ago. I had starred in it.

Brands I Grew Up With

As a user, the first brand I recognised was Philips, most likely. Our radio was Philips, though Murphy was probably around at the time too. The next one that I became aware of was Colgate, which had a dominant market share, followed by Binaca and Forhans.

When I had to wash clothes in the hostel, it was always the blue Rin detergent bar that would be the preferred choice. The restaurant brand was the Hilton (not THAT Hilton) cafe at the corner of Osmania University campus. (there was a branded women's college called Andhra Mahila Sabha pretty close by, and I was aware of that too).

We had a club branded as Yellandu Club in the mining towns we lived in, and I spent a lot of  time playing Badminton or swimming there. Theraja is a great author brand in Electrical engineering, and we worshipped him.

Among the Hyderabadi hotels, Kamat and Taj Mahal were the most frequented for their south Indian meals, followed by Alpha or Garden for their biryanis. The theatre brands were awesome in Hyderabad, with Ramakrishna 70mm being the pick of the lot, till Maheswari and Santosh came in. Royal in Koti was also a good theatre. Sangeet was very good for English movies, with an upmarket crowd.

My first camera was a Pentax, though I learnt photography on a German folding camera my parents had.

Cars- I drove a Datsun, a Ford Granada (huge) and a Subaru while in the U.S., and a Premier Padmini and a Maruti 800 before moving on to an Esteem later (still drive it).

Radio Days- Vividh Bharati

I used to listen to the radio a lot in my first 24 years- mainly because TV had not come to India. Now that TV has taken over most of our non-working hours, I succumbed and watched it for many years. But the last few days, having just moved and awaiting the transfer of baggage, I became less 'idiotic' and rediscovered Vividh Bharati, the entertainment channel from All India Radio.

Some of its programs and features are outstanding. The quality of the announcers is mostly good. They have also relaxed a bit from their stentorian (dull?) avatars, and smile (you can hear it) occasionally. The selection of songs is invariably good, and there is an attempt to provide a glimpse into Indian classical music through some of their programs. Chhayageet, presented by one of the RJs each night, and Bhoole bisre geet (forgotten gems) are two that I like listening to. There are interviews with film personalities too- Ujaale unki yaadon ke, interspersed with songs. One of these was an interview with Rammohan, a character artiste, who spoke very well, articulating his many experiences over decades with stars right from Prithviraj Kapoor to Manoj Kumar. In case you can't figure him out, he was the train driver in the film 'Kitaab' on whom the song "Dhanno ki aankhon mein raat ka surma" (sung by RD Burman) was picturised.

Sharing Some Soundbytes

I was subjected to a radio interview by My FM, a radio station in Nagpur as part of their Icons program. Why they chose me is a mystery that I cannot solve, but here is a link in case you want to listen to it. It's not too long. This segment is about management skills at the workplace.

http://soundcloud.com/rajendranargundkar/07-track-7

Radio Days

This was my second coming at a radio station. The first happened when I emceed (RJed) a short program for my performing friends at an All India Radio station in Bangalore during IIM days. They sang and did some other stuff, for a Yuva Vani program.

Yesterday, I went to get interviewed at My FM, one of Nagpur's leading radio channels. They have a program where they interview interesting people (actually, they said celebrities, but I find the word embarrassing), about their life, career, advice to youngsters and the world (I love this part) and so on.

Anyway, it was nice to see the youthful energy around the place- I would have loved to work in a place like this. The average age of people there must be nineteen something. I hope they all stay that way and don't grow up. It's really not worth it. The radio station's byline is Jiyo Dil Se (Live with Feeling?), which I thought was nice.

I was happy with a question that asked for my comments on 3 Idiots, the film that was made loosely based on Chetan Bhagat's book 'Five Point Someone'. The reason for my glee (it means happiness and is NOT the female version of glue) is that it was shot at IIM Bangalore, my alma mater.

Hopefully, there will be some listeners when it goes on air (I was assured there will be) one of these Sundays in Nagpur. And hopefully, they will not doze off. Santa, are you listening?