My writing leads me to Radio Broadcasting in India

My writing led me to the arena of radio broadcasting

My writer friends used to visit me at my residence situated in the nice green environs of the farm, as the Central Rice Research Institute used to be called. It was also known as the Vidyadharpur farm.

One day I was invited by them to attend a seminar on “Jaatiyata Aur Rashtriya Eakta”.

There were a number of dignitaries on the dais and they spoke one after the other.

Then there was an announcement requesting Shri Rakesh Kumar Jain to come and speak.

I thought it might be some big person or the other boy with the same name in the college studying commerce.

My friends sitting next to me then urged me to go and speak as the announcement on the microphone was for me. Then I realized that my friends had told the organizers to include my name in the list of speakers. I went and spoke extempore for some time.

At the end of it when I came back to my seat, one person came to me and introduced himself to me as the Programme Executive of All India Radio (Akashvani) Cuttack Radio Station. He requested me to listen to the radio programme on the function to be broadcast later on.
I returned home and told my family about the same and went to my room and forgot all about it.

I was reminded by my family about the radio programme and I went to listen. The radio programme started with the announcement by the announcer about the programme followed by the compere giving brief details of the programme and the main dignitaries. It was followed by excerpts from the speeches of the dignitaries.

Then came my name and excerpts from my speech and astonishingly for my family and me the remaining time of the programme was filled with portions of what I had spoken extempore.

Everyone was looking at me with pride and they said “So this is what you spoke there in the programme!” and I too was filled with a sense of thrill on hearing my voice over the waves for the first time and that too very prominently in the programme as what I had spoken had been given the maximum time in the limited programme.

After this I was invited for an interview over AIR Cuttack, titled “Interview with a young Botanist from Allahabad University”. It was broadcast from Cuttack station and was repeated from all stations of AIR in Orissa in the Yuva Vani programme. The questions were on Botany and writing and solution of various problems especially youth problems. This was around 1972.

Thereafter the Programme Executives at the radio station sometimes got in touch with me and had my ideas for programmes.

This had developed my interest in the use of radio broadcasting as a medium for education, information and for bringing about a scientific temper and socio-cultural –economic development of the people of India.

When I saw an advertisement in the papers, (around 1974) for the post of Programme Executive in AIR, I applied and ultimately got selected by the UPSC and joined as a Programme Executive for spoken word (English/Hindi) AIR(Akashvani) Ahmedabad in July 1975.I worked here till beginning of November 1976.