The Hrishi.K diaries
Get a drift on what's happening and what's not in the life of popular music jockey Hrishikesh Kannan a.k.a. Hrishi.K, who presents the breakfast show on 94.3 Radio One
I always say. . in the radio and the hospitality business, while the others holiday and party, .we work our socks off!
The challenge was to put out a rousing 4-hr Republic Day special today. I asked myself -- what can I bring to the table that hasn't been done before? What would the kings and queens in my life (ie., my dear listeners) really enjoy!? Talk about the struggle of our freedom fighters? Naa -- done to death Celebrity messages? Yeah, okay, but that can't be the usp.
Then I said if it's gotta be about us being a Republic lets go the constitutional / sanmvidhaan route!
Eureka! It had always struck me that if our founding fathers had been alive today, wouldn't they themselves have wanted to tweak this holy document?
A few phone calls and Darryl Vaz– an ace constitutional law expert who loves his radio listening whilst enroute to his many hearings -- was on board.
What a chat this turned out to be! Darryl says, �the environment';. nothing in the Constitution on that. Perhaps there were more serious dangers lurking in 1950 when our founding fathers were working on the all-important document.
I asked - What about the fundamental right to work, Darryl? Don't we need an amendment? Commercial sex workers and their business are still not recognized; they still get thrown out of Kamathipura tenements when the builders get in to do their redevelopment thing.
He agreed. He also rounded the chat up by saying the Civil Code needs a rethink but hey, along with the British Constitution, ours is probably the best drafted in the world. Tongue in cheek, I asked, �Is that because our founding fathers had a copy of what the Brits had in front of them whilst they wrote in the good old late 40`s?
Then it was back to the commercial -- gotta give my listeners a fair share of that right? Or they won't come to papa every morning.
Called my buddy Shaan -- .he was in the midst of a meal. Said, �Bbuddy call back later na`` and when I did, he sang the most gorgeous deshbhakti ka gaana for me. His testament to Rehman saab's Roja soundtrack �Bharat hummko jaan se pyaara hai' -- pristine live singing on the telephone line!! That's great radio, darlings.
Post which I just had to get Shankar Mahadevan - .a quick chat before I hit the record button. He's always so liberal with his praise for me: �Machcha (as all regular Tamil boys refer to each other) u r too good da I can't get enough of listening to you, you're so good on the radio!' The sheepish thank you that came out of my mouth could never express the gratitude I keep feeling in my heart for this wonderful man. And then he sings �Sabse aage honge Hindustani' with full nationalistic jazbaa and junoon. Rounding it up with a �Bharat maata ki jai!' ` chant. Here we go… 94.3 Radio One's airwaves were heating up.
Meanwhile I felt it was time to get a little filmi -- in between songs I said to Tulika my producer and Ravi the associate on the show, �C'mon forces, let's rock this Republic Day Special!'
Ravi went out into the streets to get soundbytes of people at flag hoisting ceremonies and Tulika and I agreed that Independence Day is about �Angrezon ki hatyaa aur freedom fighters ko shraddhaanjali,' but Republic Day is about the founding fathers of our Constitution and what inspires us in our sanmvidhaan That's when I said, �Let's cut inspiring dialogues from contemporary Indian cinema for our listeners!' And after some some minutes of swift editing, we had a playout that had Shahrukhs inspiring speech to the ladies' hockey team in Chak de, Naseeruddin Shah's common man monologue from a Wednesday, Aamir Khan's sarfaroshi in Sarfarosh, Nana Patekar's histrionics on Bhaarat Maata's sanmidhaan in Krantiveer and last but not the least, the constitutional leanings of young India from that modern day magnum opus , Rang De Basanti.
The music? Well for those of you who missed the show, how does this sound? Sonu Nigams Rang De Basanti Chola from Legend Of Bhagat Singh, Mahendra Kapoor sahab's brilliant Mere Desh Ki Dharti in the classics section, Sukhvinder's rousing gaayaki in Des Mera, and not to forget Anu Malik hits from Border.
The independent (non-film) music hour from 9 to 10 am (incidentally we are the only station which has this slot in the country . .otherwise breakfast shows as a rule are film-obsessed) put a lump in my throat. Pandit Nehrus favourite song rendered by the Nightingale of India, Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo and Raghav Sachar's as yet not much heard version of Vande Mataram.
Aah, I love my job!
Tomorrow come back -on indias only music station 94.3 Radio One to listen to me from 7am-11am and also come back here to get ur fill of the `the Hrishi.K diaries`
