The Joy of Listening to Radio

I

My listening ability developed better than my reading ability due to circumstances in life. I spent my initial childhood (1974-1979) in Aberystwyth in Wales, UK, in a beautiful sea-side university town, where my father was studying. At school, we all developed a habit of reading books. Roald Dahl was our JK Rowling. I had limited exposure to television, but BBC Radio would play in the background. My parents were fans of BBC Radio.

The first twist came when we returned to Bangladesh in 1979. I was nine. My grandpa (Dada) taught me Bangla from scratch. I entered mainstream education in 1980. It took me ages to read properly. By the time, I was prepared to read, a second twist came.

After my SSC in 1985, my parents gifted me a National Panasonic music system. The cassette player and the radio was my portal to an imaginary world. Just like social media is today's portal to a virtual world. Audio attracted me much more than the world of ink and paper. Thus began my journey with audio, through music and radio.

II

We didn't have mobile phones or the internet. Many of us didn't even have landphones. The night meant you were on your own. After studies, reading books, listening to music or following the radio was what you could do. I was never a voracious reader. The only option left was the audible world.

If devices are the portal for the night today, for me it was my music player. I spent endless nights listening to music or the radio. FM radio wasn't available in 1985. We relied on medium wave and short wave. Our choices weren't much, but we were content with what we had.

The radio channel was Bangladesh Betar (then Radio Bangladesh) and its different stations. World Music played between 2.30 and 3 PM on weekdays. There would be a special Yesterday Once More on Tuesdays that featured music from the 1960s and 1970s, my signature decades when it comes to music.

At night there was then and still is now, Nishuti. This was an assorted mixture. There was a 30-minute drama. There was a Bangla cinema songs programme that exposed me to our master composer Alauddin Ali Shaheb and others. Nishuti played till almost 3 AM.

Short wave was my passport to the outside world. BBC World Service, Voice of America, All India Radio, Radio Ceylon, Radio Luxembourg, Australian Broadcasting; the list goes on. I can't express in words how much these programmes "informed, educated and entertained" me.

III

My love for radio resurfaced during my youth when I was studying at Cambridge. BBC Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, Radio 5, and World Service all had something for every mood and every occasion. It was in my Cambridge days I realised how beautiful BBC Radio was.

Technology was changing. Radio was ripe for a transformation. The Guardian, UK launched the world's first podcast in 2004. That changed radio forever. Soon, NPR (National Public Radio) of the USA started providing texts with their programmes. You could now download a podcast and listen later. Who could have dreamed this in 1985?

I've never been a TV person. I'm not a voracious reader. Why do I love radio so much? I can close my eyes and concentrate. I can escape into an imaginary world. I can let my thoughts travel like they never have before. Ritwik Ghatak, the filmmaker from Dhaka, once said, "Practice the art of thinking." Radio is probably the thinking person's medium.

Asrar Chowdhury teaches economics in classrooms. Outside, he watches Test cricket, plays the flute and listens to music and radio podcasts. Email: asrarul@juniv.edu or asrarul@gmail.com