Turn up the Radio!!

My parents were strictly against getting a connection of cable TV in our home. So until I started living in college hostel, about 10 years ago, I didn’t have much idea on what was going on in the Television world, be it drama or otherwise. 

My siblings and I were brought up on a heavy dose of Doordarshan. Sometimes if we twist the TV antenna far enough, we would catch a hazy glimpse of DD Metro too. I am pretty sure everyone is familiar with the popular Friends series. Well I used to follow it in the little ‘TV and Movie section of The Telegraph newspaper, yeah imagine that!!


I was a huge fan of English songs, and during those days, there were hardly any programmes that played my favorite numbers. My only solace was a 15 minute  radio series which was telecast every day between 2:45 pm to 3:00 pm.


The school bus would to drop me a good 500m away from home at around 2:30 pm and I used to run like crazy to reach home. I would throw off my shoes in the  veranda, slam the doors and tune in to the radio.


During the day my Mom would often mess with the frequencies to play Assamese songs. And I had to reset all the settings. Ahh so frustrating!! 🙂


With bated breath, I would pray for Maria or Backstreet boys. Oh the joy of listening to Westlife and N Sync!! The suspense of what awaits next and sometimes the disappointment when not one of my favorite songs are played. No one was supposed to disturb me during those 15 minutes.

Through the series, I got introduced to Carpenters and Scorpions. And MLTR too. 




When I listen to That’s Why you go Away, I still imagine myself sitting on the floor, next to the radio, my ears sticking to the speakers. I am filled with a sudden
gush of strange nostalgic feeling, as if something is missing, as if
something has been left behind and beyond my grasp.

On another note, this is what radio does to me these days!!

33 thoughts on “Turn up the Radio!!

  1. Ooh how I miss listening to the Radio myself.
    Those amazing songs..back to back..no ads (lesser!)
    They were beautiful.. You brought back fond memories 🙂

  2. haha! My childhood revolved around Doordarshan too 😛

    Check out 'Young and beautiful' by Lana Del Ray! it is awesome 🙂

    I love MLTR too!

  3. Your have brought out the nostalgic feeling very vividly.. I was also transported to my childhood – we had to go to our neighbor's house to watch TV, B/W ones. It came to our household much later…A good touching post…

  4. I loved music growing up, loved hearing music on the radio, then rushing to the story to collect the records to play on my record player. I could listen to music for hours on end. Still can.

  5. I love the nostalgia you mention.What memories that brings back and hey, what a coincidence that I read this on the same day as my music-related status update on FB 😀

    Love that last picture. So true, right?

  6. I so miss those days..Radio that played music more and advertisements less. Backstreet boys, britney spears, madonna made us happy. Simple things made us happy.

  7. I dont have very many radio memories, but LP player. And like you, I get that intense nostalgic feeling on listening to some oldies which were played on our LP payer then. And that ecard is sooo apt 😀

  8. Well we had no TV in our young days so we sat glued to the radio. I guess we learned to entertain ourselves mostly by reading books and playing with friends in building compounds. My kids look at me and go huh?

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