Talking all the way to a lesson

Reena Dhillon

A WORLD of voices where words, sounds and music create infinite number of pictures in the mind. I was fascinated by radio jockeys (RJ) when I enrolled myself in a journalism course. Talking in a stylish manner, like an RJ, had become my habit those days. My parents, friends and classmates would often praise my way of speaking. 

Luckily, my dreams got wings when AIR, Jalandhar, launched its FM radio and held auditions for RJs. I was sure of my selection, contemplating who among my competitors would be my colleagues. But my dreams were shattered when I found my name missing from the final list of selected candidates. I went straight to the director-producer and enquired about my performance. “You speak like a news reader. You don’t use entertaining language. Listeners won’t enjoy a programme presented by you. We will consider you if you can improve,” he said.

I looked at myself in the mirror, took a deep breath and began speaking in an entertaining conversational style. It took me a week to convince myself that I was fit for another audition. 

The next day, I went through the audition and the director remarked: “Not bad! You have improved but you lack the style to bond with the audience.” Style! The word echoed in my ears, my illusion of being one of the most stylist girls melted. 

The obsession to become an RJ left me with no option than to improve my style. I studied a number of books on how to be a good RJ and learnt a lot to bring style in my conversation. Again, I went to the radio station, confident that they would have no reason to refuse me this time. As soon as the audition was over, I rushed to the director: “Sir, when will I get my first programme? I think now I am set to air my voice.” This time my illusion of having a good grasp over language vanished. In a serious tone he replied: “I am sorry. Your pronunciation is very poor.” 

He was right. I didn’t know to pronounce many Punjabi words. I started listening to Punjabi radio and TV programmes to improve my language. It was not easy to utter words in a way other than what you are habitual to. After teaching my tongue how to roll out these words, I was back at the radio station. 

This time, it was also a test of the director’s patience. He shouted at me: “You have no work! You come here daily to waste our time.” My ego pushed me to retaliate, but my dream convinced me to focus. I persuaded him to give me one more chance, he did. After I read my script, he said:  “Now everything is fine, but your script is not up to the mark.”

Oh, script! I searched for and read  interesting things and wrote another script. He gave me a chance to present a programme, with a rider: “If listeners enjoy it, you will get more programmes else never come for auditions.”

On January 10, 2004, I presented my first program. I was on the top of the world. With God’s grace, all went fine and I presented over 45 programmes. This experience is now helping me encourage my students to have a good command of language, pronunciation, power of visualisation and writing an effective script. 

Moreover, it taught me a lesson — Never give up.