Dear friends, colleagues, well wishers, and all, Now a new thread I am going to start through my blog exclusively written on a great radio artist, announcer, and producer Gopal Sharma Ji, with whom I met on last 31st May, 2013 at his residence located in a suburban of Mumbai, Borivali East., and by 4.15 pm I had been there at Gopal Sharma Ji’s abode. The bell rang and an old man in his 80s opened the door. Sometimes silence overpowers words and verbal introduction takes the back seat. I didn’t say anything neither this father figure. We both stared at each other for fraction of second and I just offered my heartfelt salutation to his holy feet. After this brief exchange of pleasantries I was offered to sit on sofa. He was sitting in front of me on a deewan. Old days music lovers must have heard the musical program “Awaz Ki Duniya Ke Doston” broadcast at Radio Ceylon. This program was compered by him in his inimitable style with excellent diction and proper modulation of voice, perfectly suited for radio. This program was an instant hit and continued for many years to come.
We chit-chatted for next two hours and he shared many sweet-sour memories of his youth and professional life as a radio announcer. I was presented with a soft copy of memoir titled “Awaaz Ki Duniya Ke Doston” penned by Sharma Ji as discussion could have taken many hours before coming to an end. So we preferred his autobiography over the verbal discussion. Often people do mistake between a memoir and an autobiography so did I, but I am not going to repent. Later I discovered the book to be an autobiography, covering almost every single aspect of his life right from his childhood to adolescent stage to professional announcer as well. So now from here onward I would use the most appropriate term ‘autobiography.’
Dear readers, before I further proceed I have a few humble requests from you all. First I beg your pardon for any typographical error just out of blue or grammatical error because of my ignorance about the literary fabric of language and sometimes out pour of emotions straightway coming from my heart. Second a new session at our institute has just commenced and my busy schedule may not permit me to be regular with the next episodes.
The biography starts with the forewords of appreciation by great luminaries like Vijay Kishore Dubey, and announcer of Radio Ceylon, who later discovered the author of this autobiography to take up the charge to sail the ship of Hindi seva for the next voyage, Vishwanath Sachdev, ex-editor, Navbharat Times, and Mahaveer Jhaveri.
Now the excerpt from the book:
First time at Radio Ceylon, dated 24 April, 1956.
The journey started on a bitter-sweet note as the very first announcement somehow went wrong, when Gopal Ji, out of his anxiety and excitement announced the next song on “Purani Filmon Ke Geeton Ka Kaaryakram” and here the tongue got slipped, when he said now the next song is from the movie Mukesh sung by Andaz, instead of naming Mukesh as the singer for the movie Andaz. The audience of Radio Ceylon didn’t appreciate this mistake but the Almighty was kind enough to him and he survived his own mistake. This made him more alert and agile while doing announcement.
With this brief but interesting anecdote, I beg your permission. Will come later with the next interesting revelation from the book.
Awaz ki Duniya ke Doston by GOPAL SHARMA 