If you’re a music lover and have listened to radio programs or have heard your elders speak about All India Radio programs then you would be aware of Jhumri Telaiya, a small town in the present state of Jharkhand. The small hamlet came to fame in the early 1950s when Radio Ceylon and All India Radio’s Vividh Bharati used to reel under a deluge of demands to play songs sung by legendary singer and Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar who passed away today at the age of 92 years.
As the news of the Nightingale of India breathing her last reached this small town, loudspeakers installed at marquees to worship Goddess Saraswati started playing the singers numbers. Saraswati Puja was celebrated yesterday and is a major festival in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar and Lata Mangeshkar was given the epithet of having Maa Saraswati in her throat. As per reports, people have been giving a tearful farewell to the singer at roadside eateries, small shops and establishments.
Jhumri Telaiya’s music-loving populace used to tune in regularly to Ameen Sayani’s Binaca Geetmala, Radio Ceylon and Vividh Bharati even after television sets replaced radio in most of India. This town, 165 km from the state capital of Ranchi used to inundate the radio stations with demands and one could still remember Ameen Sayani announcing, “Agli farmaish hai Jhumri Teliaya se" (the next request is from Jhumri Telaiya).
PTI quoted Rajiv Ranjan, former Indian Revenue Service employee and now a barrister based in Ontario, Canada, to reveal the town’s fondness for music. He revealed that it is tied to its economic history and discovery of vast deposits of mica in the region in 1890. He told the news agency, “The Mica tycoons of Jhumri Telaiya, Chattu Ram Bhadani and Horil Ram Bhadani, controlled nearly 1,000 mines in the region. These rich and influential businessmen spearheaded the transformation of Jhumri Telaiya from an obscure, sleepy village into a mining powerhouse with a fondness for music. The famous Bhadani family, even got Suraiya, (a well-known Bollywood playback singer) from Bombay, to perform at a concert there, as also Ustad Bisillah Khan.”
He further revealed that in 1957, when All India Radio resumed broadcasting old Hindi songs on their Vividh Bharti program, they received bulk demands from the town. To save labour, the channel printed request format on postcards where only the name of the song was needed to be written and could be sent across without further ado.
When radios became popular sending song requests on postcards became a major pastime in this town. Ranjan further revealed that a mine owner, Rameshwar Prasad Barnwal started mailing postcards with 'farmaishein' (song requests), to Radio Ceylon daily for Ameen Sayani’s `Binaca Geetmala' program which led others to do the same. He said, “Because Barnwal was a regular mailer, his name started appearing regularly in the requests announced in the show. This motivated other residents of Jhumri Telaiya to send in their requests as well.” The fad took over the entire town and the radio lovers formed a little radio listeners’ club and competed amongst themselves for the most requests sent.
Rahul Modi, a leading industrialist of the region, whose grandfather Rameshwar Modi was a leading mica trader then told PTI, “My grandfather and others used to bet with each other on whose name would be announced on a given day in the music requests program. It is a sad day for the region. It is such a great lossJhumri Teliaya and Lata Didi songs are inseparable.”
Dr. Deepak Kumar, a leading doctor with a UN body reminisced and said, “Jhumri Teliaya has its identity due to radio and Lata Ji’s songs. Radio was prohibited in the hostel of Sainik School, Telaiya, but we used to manage to somehow listen to her songs and Jhumri Telaiya’s name. At that time it used to be part of Hazaribagh district.”
Vimal Kumar Singh, Director, Ambika Singh Engicom Pvt Ltd who also did his schooling at Jhumri Telaiya said, “Lata Ji's demise is shocking for entire Telaiya.”
(Source: PTI)
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