A spot on WRFG with Pancham

So at 0900 today morning I get a phone call from Mrs. Manorama Pandit, host of the Music from India show on WRFG 89.3 FM {more background: Radio Pancham}. She was going to be helming the show at 11 am all alone and wondered if I could help. We were both aware of the key hindrance to all this: I didn't have a car. Still, this was an opportunity I couldn't pass over. I got ready in a jiffy (well, it was a jiffy, compared to the average time I consume on a daily basis) and headed out to school to get to a computer so I could check the MARTA train and bus schedules (frequency was another concern since it was a Sunday). After figuring out the train and bus timings (yes, I could make it there, although a bit late), I called Vijay to confirm the extra fingerstyle guitar class we had (to make up for one where our instructor couldn't make it) and he offered to drive me over to the radio station. Talk about luck!

Housed inside an old school building (Moreland School) near Little Five Points, the rather modest broadcasting room was full of music: shelves to my right as I walked in and in the two shopping bags (courtesy, Mrs. Pandit) near the console. The show had already moved into the first section and the introductions happened over strains of Hindustani classical music.

The best part of the show would have been three choices of mine that got aired (including the bits of trivia I was only too glad to provide). Needless to say, they were R D Burman compositions.

* Aye Zindagi, a forgotten dirge about life by Kishore Kumar for the long-in-the-cans Hrishikesh Mukherjee-helmed murder mystery Na Mumkin

* Neend Churake Raaton Mein, a Lata-Kishore duet from the Dev Anand starrer Shareef Budmash

* Ghar Aaja Ghir Aaye, the lovely Lata song in Raag Maalgunji from R. D. Burman's début as composer, Chote Nawab.

So much for my début on public radio -- and I wasn't even on the spot even once, although trivia buffs could hear me in the background, correcting her when she cited Amar Prem and Bahaaron Ke Sapne as being scored by S. D. Burman.