BLIND NO MORE

Ever since I donned the hat of a Group Manager, Brand Integration and CSR in Radio Mirchi, I am unlearning and learning a lot every single day. From being in Programming and catering to clients, to sit on the other side of the table, and for a change, giving briefs and deadlines to event companies, designers and many a times rejecting ideas, it’s a different ball game altogether.

Actually I feel a trifle uneasy rejecting concepts right away. I know how much goes in creating that one master piece of a creative only to be turned down by the client. But then that’s the way corporate works. If it’s not upto the standard and expectations, then its not.

I must admit, more than meeting agencies and discussing events, what has really kept me creatively busy is the CSR bit. To use our audio expertise in making a weekly audio news reel for the visually handicapped, I did not realize would be such a fulfilling experience.

This new role of mine took me to NAB, the National Association for the Blind. in R. K Puram. A meeting with the Chairman, Mr. Thamboli and an elderly gentleman called Mr. Makhija was a learning experience I thought, till I went to the institute one hot afternoon, where I met a smart young man called Prashant, the Project Manager and a fan in Geeta.

As I was shown around the institute, I wondered if most were actually visually handicapped. The IT division of NAB in the basement looks like a neat and clean school lab, with dozens of computers. It always took a while to realize that most working at the comps were blind. The speed at which they were typing, studying school or college text material thru audio CD’s or the deftness at surfing the net would put many to shame.

I went to the ‘Tiny Tots’ section. It seems a class was in progression. However, it seemed anything but a class. While half a dozen teachers sat on different tables, the babies were anything but studying. Had my English teacher been around she would have loved to call it a ‘fish market’. As is the noise of a dozen kids was not enough, there lay a ‘two in one’ on one of the tables which had a female voice narrating something. I was told that the babies, while playing, screaming and shouting were actually listening to that voice on the ‘two in one’ attentively and that the class would end on a question answer session on the same. I was told this was their orientation towards audio in the real world. To be able to hear what they are supposed to inspite of the humdrum around.

After a lot of hesitation, I asked Mr. Makhija, if he knew the whereabouts of three of my students, Mayank, Nupur and dear Yogesh. I used to teach them Geography during my stint as a TGT in St. Mary’s school. We were not trained but only sensitized to the special children in class. While we taught in the conventional manner, the kids were forever busy taking notes in brail, with help from one of their fellow students. Well, actually Mayank and Nupur would do that but not Yogesh Gola.

Mayank had lost his sight on day two of his joining a prestigious school in Nainital. He fell from the mezzanine floor and lost his eyesight. He was a fabulous singer and harmonium player.

Nupur was the darling of the class. Always the first to answer ironical questions like “what is the colour used to show mountains in maps”. “Brown!”, she was always the first to reply. I remember, the first time someone showed me who Nupur was. She was in class four then, and a colleague pointed out one of the girls in a group dance of a 100 students in St. Mary’s play field. Nupur was dancing away in rhythm with the rest!

Yogesh Gola was another one. I must admit I was the fondest of him. I would never find him at his seat but always underneath the teacher’s desk. I used to hold his hand and make him walk around the class as I taught; else he would not let the class study. His antics and his sense of humour always had the class in splits. I could never ever get angry with him.

Yogesh wore the thickest possible soda bottle glasses. Always unkempt, sweaty and extremely naughty. His story was most heartrending. He was in the process of losing his vision. His sight was deteriorating every single month. He was being told by the teachers at NAB and his doc, that he should start learning Brail. He always came to school with his Brail kit, but would instead of using it, come half and inch close to the black board to note things in his notebook. His handwriting was atrocious. He refused to accept the fact that he was soon to go blind. Doctors gave him an year to see all that he could of the world.

I took it over myself to make him learn Braile. I told him I wanted to learn to write in Braile so that I could surprise Nupur and Mayank and also help them study better. I spent quite a few recesses in the library, treating him to his favourite juices and off course the samosas. I failed. He refused to learn or teach me, after day one. He said, I would not need Braile ever. I can see. That was true. He could see, but he refused to acknowledge the fact that soon he would not be able to.


This was 8 years ago, or was it 9? For all these years I had a small guilt. Though I had not told Yogesh, but I had thought of taking him to Appu Ghar then. Just one Saturday full of fun. He was the son of a truck driver who did not have the time or the money to visit his visually handicapped son at the NAB hostel. I never managed to spare that one Saturday, in my busy schedule of school and freelance voice over days.

After so many years, I was in the institute where these three students came after school, to translate the CW into Braile and to do their HW, revision, etc. The octogenarian Mr. Makhija did not remember Mayank but informed me that Nupur is presently placed in a MNC after having completed her MBA and Yogesh Gola is working with a company in Jaipur.

If people and my fans thought that my story of losing my voice and getting back on air was commendable, then they need to hear the final bit of Yogesh’s story. If I have mentioned in all my print and TV interviews that it was my positive attitude and the belief to be back as a jock that got me back my voice, it would seem a trivial achievement in front of Yogesh’s.

I was told at NAB by another Yogesh that Yogesh Gola, my class five student, was no longer blind. The stubborn and obstinate kid had his way. As his vision improved the first thing he it seems did was to tear the ‘visually handicapped’ certificate issued to him by NAB.

I do not know if Yogesh would remember his Rao Mam, but if he does read this blog someday, he should know, I adore him for his guts and perseverance.

Yogesh Gola, blind no more.

personal protection?

I dont know what to say or feel...or maybe i know...as of now am feeling angry!Angry at what happened and could have been so easily avoided, and am talking about the Gurgaon school shootout.
No one seems to be thinking about the slain 14 year old abhishek tyagi, the focus is only on aakash and understandibly so. I am yet to digest the fact that the property dealer father actually forgot or left his revolver on the TV set at home, that the kid picked it up, hid it in his socks and later in the school loo to finally take it out and shoot a classmate!
I am not questioning the school's role here, for heavens sake its asking too much from the school to not having noticed a gun hid in the bathroom...dont we remember our school days when we hid all our comics there?
My question is only to the parents...they did not notice the entire day that the revolver kept on the telly was missing?
Also i do not want to say the cliched things of blame it on television, movies, etc....my point is simple, if a 14 year old kid understands that a gun at home...can be used, so easily, its simply because he must have at some point of time heard his dad talk about it frivoulously...literally drawing room conversation...after all it was lying right there.
This time round the father will have no time or chance to think about his folly and will have to live with his mistake and deflated ego all his life...a gun for what?personal protection? Excuse me...The kid at age 14 is booked under Section 320 and he has no idea what it means.
Surrender the gun...coz if its lying at home....someone might just use it.

HATS OFF

Am yet to know of someone more dependable and responsible than the Delhi Metro. Amazing.When tremors shook the city last week at 4.42 am, what was Metro doing immediately after?It ran trains on the three lines minus the dilli janta just to make sure everything was fine, that the tremors had no effect on the metro lines!!!!
And then I read today of the mock drills they had yesterday just to check how efficient the staff is in case of an emergency.Mind it the entire drill took 15 min to evacuate the station, train, etc, which included a disabled person wheel chaired in time. Hats off Metro!

ALVIDA

Its time to say bye!
Now that i have your attention, no am going nowhere. Its time to say bye to the old and say a big HI to the new, and am talking about the new Radio Mirchi Jingle.
For most the first reaction would offcourse be "So?What's the big deal?"Well, a big deal for me for sure. Takes me back five years, when we a bunch of unknown and little known people came together from all parts of delhi thru rigourous levels of auditions and interviews to finally be the core MIRCHI team. I remember the day so clearly, when at our bahadurshah zafar marg office, we all met in the conference room.Introductions followed by initiation, training and offcourse the Pizzas from Dominoz and we were all loving it.
In the days to come, we "heard" the station Radio Mirchi for the very fist time. I remember recording mock shows and listening/anaylysing it while driving. And everytime the Mirchi jingle would play, i had goose bumps.Mirchi is afterall,my baby.everytime it played, everyone in the car knew they had to shut up and listen...it was an anthemn!
The anthemn played on every hour thru the last 4 and a half years at the top of the hour, so much so that listeners would actually see the time to check if it was one o clock or whatever!That was the precision of the Vicky Station Jingle, as we called it.
Like all things in life, this too shall change from the 5th of Dec07.Its been a long innings....29th April 02 to 5th Dec07.Its time to say Alivida, time to bade goodbye to vicky and say HI to the new age musicians Vishal and Shekhar's compostion.A new voice, a new feel, brighter, happier tune fitting just perfectly with the Christmas and New Year feel.
Heard it the other day and if i know your taste...you shall love it too...and trust me in a week or two you shall be humming along.