Jailhouse rock rolls at Taloja prison
Mumbai:
As the sun climbs to its zenith, a watch post inside Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai is a beehive of activity. At the stroke of 12, Kishore Kumar’s seventies hit ‘Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana’ starts playing from loudspeakers in every barrack. A deep voice informs listeners that the theme for the day is ‘zindagi (life)’. “We may have hit a rough patch in life today but this isn’t permanent. Soon, there will be better days,” says the speaker, philosophically.
That is radio jockey Sadiq of the Taloja Central Prison Radio or the TLCP run by inmates for fellow inmates—a first in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
“Music reaches the soul and acts as a stress buster for prisoners,” says jail superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar. “We had been toying with the idea of having inmates run a radio station, but needed technical help. An NGO from Navi Mumbai stepped in with equipment such as mixers, laptops and a microphone. They also roped in a sound engineer to train a team of inmates.”
A three-member team comprising the radio jockey, a scriptwriter and a systems operator runs a one-hour show from 12 to 1 pm every day. “The content is pre-recorded and has to be screened by us before it can go live,” says a prison officer.
“The three inmates chosen to run the radio station are quick learners and training took less than two weeks. There is a database of 70,000 old Hindi film songs to choose from. A theme is selected, such as life, love, happiness, etc., and the writer develops a script on it for the RJ,” says sound engineer Rajesh Anand, who was hired by NGO Prison Ministry of India for the project.
Among the inspirations for the Taloja prison radio station was the radio station at Pune’s Yerawada prison, where actor Sanjay Dutt served as RJ during his incarceration in a case related to the 1993 Mumbai blasts.
RJ Sadiq and his colleagues broadcast every day from 12 to 1 pm from a watchtower on the Taloja jail premises in Navi Mumbai
‘Aap ki farmaish’ rules air waves on prison radio
A watch post on the Taloja prison premises has been converted into a radio station. Watched by guards, the team spends four hours a day at this place to develop content for subsequent shows.
The prison in Kharghar houses 3,152 male inmates, most of the undertrials. “The most popular part of the show is ‘aap ki farmaish’ (your requests). Inmates can choose film songs they want to listen to and drop chits requesting them in a box. For two days every week, songs requested by inmates are played throughout the show,” says a prison officer.
The name of the inmate who has requested the song is also announced. Faces light up when their names are announced, he adds. Some of the inmates' request ‘shayaris’ instead of film songs.
The jail authorities wanted to make sure that every aspect of the radio station was handled by inmates. The TLCP logo and banners for the radio station have been designed by an inmate, Pillai, who is very good with art.RJ Sadiq, an arm accused, has already made a name among inmates. A trial run for the show began from January 2 this year and a full launch took place on January 15. “The team thinks on its feet. On days when they are low on content, they observe the birth anniversary of a popular actor or singer of yesteryears and play songs in his memory,” says an officer.
Mumbai:
As the sun climbs to its zenith, a watch post inside Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai is a beehive of activity. At the stroke of 12, Kishore Kumar’s seventies hit ‘Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana’ starts playing from loudspeakers in every barrack. A deep voice informs listeners that the theme for the day is ‘zindagi (life)’. “We may have hit a rough patch in life today but this isn’t permanent. Soon, there will be better days,” says the speaker, philosophically.
That is radio jockey Sadiq of the Taloja Central Prison Radio or the TLCP run by inmates for fellow inmates—a first in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
“Music reaches the soul and acts as a stress buster for prisoners,” says jail superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar. “We had been toying with the idea of having inmates run a radio station, but needed technical help. An NGO from Navi Mumbai stepped in with equipment such as mixers, laptops and a microphone. They also roped in a sound engineer to train a team of inmates.”
A three-member team comprising the radio jockey, a scriptwriter and a systems operator runs a one-hour show from 12 to 1 pm every day. “The content is pre-recorded and has to be screened by us before it can go live,” says a prison officer.
“The three inmates chosen to run the radio station are quick learners and training took less than two weeks. There is a database of 70,000 old Hindi film songs to choose from. A theme is selected, such as life, love, happiness, etc., and the writer develops a script on it for the RJ,” says sound engineer Rajesh Anand, who was hired by NGO Prison Ministry of India for the project.
Among the inspirations for the Taloja prison radio station was the radio station at Pune’s Yerawada prison, where actor Sanjay Dutt served as RJ during his incarceration in a case related to the 1993 Mumbai blasts.
RJ Sadiq and his colleagues broadcast every day from 12 to 1 pm from a watchtower on the Taloja jail premises in Navi Mumbai
‘Aap ki farmaish’ rules air waves on prison radio
A watch post on the Taloja prison premises has been converted into a radio station. Watched by guards, the team spends four hours a day at this place to develop content for subsequent shows.
The prison in Kharghar houses 3,152 male inmates, most of the undertrials. “The most popular part of the show is ‘aap ki farmaish’ (your requests). Inmates can choose film songs they want to listen to and drop chits requesting them in a box. For two days every week, songs requested by inmates are played throughout the show,” says a prison officer.
The name of the inmate who has requested the song is also announced. Faces light up when their names are announced, he adds. Some of the inmates' request ‘shayaris’ instead of film songs.
The jail authorities wanted to make sure that every aspect of the radio station was handled by inmates. The TLCP logo and banners for the radio station have been designed by an inmate, Pillai, who is very good with art.RJ Sadiq, an arm accused, has already made a name among inmates. A trial run for the show began from January 2 this year and a full launch took place on January 15. “The team thinks on its feet. On days when they are low on content, they observe the birth anniversary of a popular actor or singer of yesteryears and play songs in his memory,” says an officer.
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