Tuesday, September 4

RADIO AND THE OLIVE GREENS !!!!!!

Please note that........
Any resemblance to the genre of poetry is purely accidental…….and unintended……

The rules and regulations of blog land
I may or may not understand

I hope ,I can borrow subjects from and for posts
and that won’t be constituted as plagiarism or post lifting
Coz chanced upon two words on a friends blog
and was reminded of a radiotic era gone by……


When books and the radio were my best friends(and a few others...of course)
When the postman was, as eagerly awaited as,
the monthly allowance……(am running short of appropriate similes off late)
And then spending a part of that measly allowance,

to buy yellow post cards to write to the radio station, requesting for songs and special people…..

Applying all the acquired skills from the physics practical lab, so as to fine tune the radio...........
till one could catch the faintest strain of that lovable signature tune -Col BOOGIE………
Of friendship requests from and to LT ‘S...LIEUTENANT(a time when the rank was more respected than the bank balance……)

If the unit adjutant acted as a censor,
there existed a civilian equivalent, in the form of ones ‘ mother,
for every letter was viewed and commented on …….
with disdain and a bag full of caution(ing) words….
But then one got smarter and caught the letters before she did……..


Of practicing and perfecting the art of letter writing,
to these unknown and unseen Men in Green,
who lived at destinations known as 56 APO and 99 APO…….
Of innocent friendships, exchanging pleasantries,
and the joy of discovering common hobbies,
and catching up with a few(lucky)ones,
when they touched base in the capital…….

‘FORCES REQUESTS’ ON ALL INDIA RADIO……….

FREQUENCY...... FORGOTTEN…….TIME…….. PROBABLY 10 PM….

BUT MEMORIES and IMPRESSIONS……….. UNFORGETTABLE



4 comments:

Parul Gahlot said...

hey lovely post! I remember your love for the men in olive greens! Wasn't surprised when you married one. Thank you so much for the comment on my blog. Coming from an English teacher it meant a lot.

Unknown said...

Beautifully written...and will not be considered plagiarism!!

padma said...

heyyy gazal!!
Good post! Must say you are really active on your blog! Lokks like the creativity is at its highest!!!!
the coorg write up is great!! am dying to go there!you post tell me you must have had time of your life there!!!
Hope to read more of u!!
Cheers
paddy

Anjan said...

I used to rather enjoy compering Forces Requests back in the 1980s - the only regret being that we could never accommodate more than a quarter of the 200-odd postcards and inlands that used to come in. Timings were 945 - 11 pm, channel 98.3m MW / 1017 MHz.