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Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

LISTEN UP Radio brings with it a different twang of Kannada

I know that doesn’t make too much sense. Isn’t grammatically right either. But you do get the point, don’t you? Welcome to the onslaught of new-age radio-driven Kannada that’s blaring out of the auto, the city taxi, the BMTC bus, and the college-goers cell phone.

With nearly 11 FM radio stations in the city, Bangalore has really heard it all — the convent-educated RJ with the Anglicised Kannada, the torrent of Kannada that one can’t fathom as Kannada at all, the generous smatterings of Kanglish added to everyday parlance, a calculatedly ‘cool’ Kannada that wasn’t around till FM radio happened. Of course many critics have slammed it, protested it, asked it to be cleaned up and purified. Blogs are brimming over with how Kannadigas would like to hear their Kannada on radio. There are others who are loving it as it is. Whatever said and done, it’s dominating Bangalore’s airwaves and ear-waves.

Noted writer and film-maker, former chairman of the Kannada Development Authority Baraguru Ramachandrappa sees this transformation in language as a routine process. “It happens when a new technology or a new generation comes in. We can make corrections, but there is no need to look at it negatively and reject it, because this is a process of growth in any language. It represents what is happening in a city-centred culture…radio stations in Bangalore are only structuring and channelising it.” He admits that radio has made the language fashionable, but stresses that fashion is a double-edged thing — it’s attractive at first but in an attempt to be too stylised, becomes artificial.

Sarala Mahesh is an ardent FM radio fan and listens to it on the way to work and at home, but objects to the hybrid language of the RJs. She says it’s okay for a language to open up and take in influences, to informalise and play around. But she is against the presumption that the language of the street is decadent. “Being cool is being equated with being brash. There is an almost contrived irreverence of everything.”

Sowjanya Kashyap, programming head at Big FM, says they have a clear brief to use colloquial Kannada. “Our RJs speak good quality Kannada and we make sure nothing offensive is said. The only way an RJ can be a listener’s friend is by being the listener himself; mixing English is a natural way of speaking today.”

More popular as Lingo Leela on radio, Priya Ganapathy now juggles work as a travel writer, emcee and entertainment professional. Having been an RJ with the first FM to arrive in the city, Priya observes: “Radio allowed RJs to connect with people. The added advantage was that RJs spoke in a casual manner, not a ‘bookish’ way. This made it easier for more people to understand Kannada and gain an insight into the local influences and accents. Some RJs made Kannada sound cool and hip, so perhaps it did help to familiarise people and subtly encourage them to use the language, without really beating one’s chest about the importance of Kannada.”

Lingo Leela became largely popular with the teaching of Kannada slang, coming in for flak from Kannada activists, but it had avid listeners.

Priya defends it: “Kannada in literature is very different from slang. Yet, the common man cannot speak Shakespeare or the Queen’s English just because it is more refined. Any language is coloured by local influences — accent, inflection, idiosyncrasies. It is these nuances that outsiders pick up first. With Lingo Leela, we were able to make local Kannada more popular with a dollop of humour and irreverence. Bombaat, sakkat, dumki, by-two etc. are not just words, they are gems one hears every day on the streets of Bangalore. So, despite initial protests by Kannada hardliners (and my mother), it was amazing to see how well it was received. It showed how using slang does not necessarily mean disrespecting a language, but is more a reflection of society.”

RJs have often been accused of putting on an unnecessary accent to make Kannada sound cool, making the jock-talk unbearable to certain audience. But Priya believes that a good RJ should be articulate, cheerful, sound real and not “try too hard” to impress his listener. “Accents and attitude that are alien to one’s own comfort level can make or break an RJ. I believe that content is more important than a fancy accent. Frankly, it is important to be proud of a language as rich as Kannada, captured beautifully in Kuvempu’s famous lines: ‘Elladaru iru, enthadaru iru, endendigu nee Kannadavaagiru’.”

N. Raghu, programme executive of AIR FM Rainbow says that during orientation, their RJs are clearly advised to speak the “aadu maatina Kannada” that is spoken in a Kannada-speaking household.

By reiterating that they are the Kannadada Kaamanabillu, they are emphasising their attempt to retain the purity of the language, he says. “You and me can’t claim that we don’t use English at all in our daily talk, and to that extent we effectively represent the trend and cultural conditions we are in.” Moreover, he adds: “We don’t subscribe to the idea of speaking fast, with ‘josh’, which is a forced-upon idea. Each language has a certain speed, rhythm, and way of articulation and only then does the purity of the thought and spirit come through.”

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