once upon a time...

this is to give a brief history in time about how and when and why...

sometime in 2004... sajan venniyoor (community radio campaigner and our star! he can sort anything!) asked me to meet anshu sharma for a tiny radio assignment... it started as a 10 min programme on the 100th anniversary of kangra earthquake... totally mad and completely successful... bharosa i.e. trusting begins...

anshu has been keeping track of community radio developments since i-dunno-when... he will add his notes... soon...

then few months later a report on permanent shelters in andaman and nicobar islands... i meet shivangi, rehman, rakesh, arif in seeds portblair... learn about their phenomenal efforts since tsunami... meet many more officials, victims, survivors... something starts to take a very vague but piercing shape...

then a trip to delhi and talk talk talk about possibilities... the coolest thing about all of us, is we love to imagine our kind of situations, scenes, cities, villages... so that gives us the push to to do what we imagine... so after bharosa and on location experiences, planning starts...

then a plan from my side, then a schedule from seeds and after all of us waiting for my leave, funds, decision on location, go ahead from portblair team (shivangi, rehman, and more),we have finally begun...

after compromises, adjustments, bending back and forth, running around round and round... tomorrow i am starting training in brindaban... in the next one month we hope to achieve what we wanted to in six months... instead of 3 we have one recorder... compromising is on time and tools, not targets...

at about 430 pm today, on my way back from ross island (it's a pretty island about 20 min away from port blair) the boat seemed to walk into the sun... signal from the divine? journey to sun shall begin... or has it already started?

first wave

radio lighthouse...

for-the-record-introduction - an initiative by seedsindia... started in andaman and nicobar islands... target of producing 15 min programmes with the help of community members... larger plan of replicating the project in other states of india...

and for my gutspill (check aaj ke naam) - a dream of a bunch of radio enthusiasts... an effort to understand people, worries, "issues" so to say... a plan to crack the medium... a compelling urge to handover a tool and a possibility to the people whose stories are never "broken" and lead a more or less excluded, not "exclusive" life AND may have gotten used to it... a gutwrenching desire to be that ray of a lighthouse... that twinkle on the sea... that decisive moment for a lost ship...

here's to whispers, questions, statements, shouts, songs, roars, thunders...
here's to sounds...
sounds of you, me, city, village, town, coconut, fish, coral, life...