hey friends and whistlers
tuesday, 13th november, 2007 was the day when Indian whistlers' association(IWA) achieved a new milestone and wrote in the history books of indian whistling. we had an interview/recording with an Australian Radio journalist and now we truly have gone international. our whistling will be heard abroad too.
our whistlers may not be very good or experts in the field of music or whistling, but when it comes to passion and dedication for whistling and to change the way it is seen here-we r second to none.
and thats what caught the attention of ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio's producer and reporter Irene Scott's attention.
Irene read the famed article abt us in Times of India in Mumbai on 28th october.
and on Sunday, 11th November i got this mail from her
"Hi There,
I am an Australian journalist travelling through india at the moment and i came across an article on your organisation. I would love to catch up with one of your groups for an interview on what you do! I will be in Mumbai for the next week, do you have a group here?
Love to hear from you, i can be contacted via email, or you can give me a call on my mobile, +614 xxxxxxxx,
Cheers!
Irene Scott
ABC Radio"
and with just 1 day's intimation, i got our new members-Manoj Karam and Freddie Daruwalla(both from Mumbai) together and Chetan and I travelled from Pune to Mumbai(abt 200kms) to meet Irene.
Manoj is an official in a consumer electronics manufacturing company, and Freddie is a flight attendant with Virgin Atlantic on Mumbai-London route.
they picked us up at the CST Station, mumbai at 10:30am and we setoff to meet Irene, which was scheduled at 1pm.
after parking our car near her hotel, we burned a cd with the english karaokes i was carrying on my mp3 player and practiced in the car till 1pm.
though i had spoken to Freddie and Manoj on phone b4 and heard them whistle, we(Chetan and I) were meeting them for the 1st time.
they turned out to be really cool people sharing our passion for whistling.
the interview with Irene went well, though i was speaking very fast into the mic. as for the whistling, we all shud have had more practice than just the 45mins we had b4 the meeting, where we discussed songs and practiced for a while.
Irene asked me many questions ranging from the "history behind whistling considered indecent in India, to the future of indian whistling and our association"
i whistled the song "hard day's night" by the Beatles and it had all foreigners there turning around to see.
then we all 4 whistled the marching tune from the movie "bridge on the river kwai"
and the hindi song "lakhon hain yahaan dilwalle".
on my suggestion, we all 6 then went out for lunch, though Irene and David wanted to have a nap.
at lunch, at LEOPOLD, the whole restaurnt was filled with foreigners-white and blacks.
Chetan(29), Manoj(41), and Freddie(32) have foreign clients/passengers and have often interacted with foreigners. but this was my 1st up-close and personal interaction with any foreigner. it somewhat changed my thinking and ideas i had abt foreigners-not all foreigners are alike and snobbish.
they way we all 6 gelled and mixed with each other, no one cud have guessed we all met for the 1st time.
but had this interaction at lunch taken place b4, i wud hve been more relaxed in the interview.
Irene(24) and David(27) are friends since 11 years and r travel partners. both have different jobs but love travelling.
they had travelled to Agra, Jaipur, Delhi, Goa b4 coming to Mumbai. they loved Indian food-David is a fan of very hot and spicy food, UNLIKE MOST FOREIGNERS.
they both seamt highly knowledgable and cool, fun and down to earth people.
David is a fan of Amar Chitrkatha and Panchtantra stories since he was 10, when he 1st came to India and has a company called Second-strike and works for youth-participation and motivation. "whatever u do, do it with dedication and no job is low job" are his motto.
Irene is a producer and engineer with ABC Radio since 4 yrs.
the lunch ended with a huge bill, owing to the costly Mumbai food and the bears-which we 4 indians shared.
then after all 6 of us having paan(beetle leaf with spices and codiments) we set off to the hostel, as it was time for Chetan and I to catch a train at 5pm.
over all it was a very nice experience and a gr8 day. i hope more such days come in IWA's kitty. |
