Honouring heroes behind Radio Udaan's sound success

Ludhiana: It was a day to honour volunteers who put their hearts and souls into Radio Udaan, an online radio station which caters to visually impaired persons across the country and some parts of the world.
The station began its service in 2014 with as many as 30 radio jockeys (RJs) in the age group of 16 to 60 years. Today, the station has more than 20,000 listeners.
The station conducted its second convention on Saturday at Braille Bhawan in Jamalpur, where volunteers from Lucknow, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and many other cities came calling.
As many as 20 visually impaired RJs were present who shared their problems with guest speakers.
Ramesh Kumar Sareen gave usual insights on PWD policies that are useful for visually-impaired persons, while Madhu Singhal shared the challenges being faced by visually-impaired women on education, professional and marriage fronts.
Speakers also gave presentations on motivation and Persons with Disabilities Act.
The event also saw with a host of cultural items presented by the Udaan team members.
A perfect act
Team members presented a play on "visually challenged and matrimonial".
The play was scripted, narrated and presented by a team of visually-impaired persons belonging to various cities of Delhi, Lucknow, Pathankot and Ludhiana. They had practised the play over the phone and social networking sites without actually meeting each other in person.
Feeling happy about the successful execution of the play, its director Pathankot-based RJ Danish Mahajan shared, "The play was plotted keeping in mind the real-life difficulties faced by visually-impaired persons. The story revolves around two blind girls who took different decisions on their marriages. A girl who opted for a visually-impaired person had a satisfactory married life, but the other had to make many compromises for selecting a visually abled person. The consequences proved fatal for the latter, who eventually ended her life, due to dissatisfaction and harassment in her life."
Jyoti from Ludhiana, one of the members in the play, said, "The team was selected based on the voice suitability for the roles on Skype, followed by a two-month practice over calls."
Sangeeta, 30, from Lucknow, said, "I was a regular listener of Udaan and attended the show few times. Though I had never been to the city, but it was exciting to meet members for the first time. And I will visit the city again."
Danish, who selected the team, said, "The best part was that we practised the play once, before the actual execution."
Naresh and Gitesh from Delhi were equally excited to perform in the play. They added, "The two months was indeed the best time when we practised and bonded so well."