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Photo: R. Eswarraj

Compare and contrast While it is Raaghu’s job to be the patient listener and the empathetic counsellor, Sumesh’s technique is to give his listeners an electric jump-start to the day

On the other hand you have RJ Raaghu who combines neatly-combed hair, moustache, a body that makes unhurried, decisive movements, deep penetrating eyes with sage-like calmness and philosophical talk with pregnant pauses for effect.

Making these two characters part of the same plot was the toughest part of putting this story together. If diversity is what Big 92.7 FM was looking for when they went hunting for radio jockeys these two are as conversely opposite as they come – the proverbial chalk and cheese, if you like.

Meeting tranquil Raaghu after the turbulent Sumesh was like the experience of an unnerving stillness after a riotous storm – both equally intense encounters but in such completely different ways.

Sumesh had just finished with his morning show, “Big Kudla”, and was prancing up and down the studio. The initial pleasantries and my profuse apologies for turning up late were exchanged inside the recording studio.

Not surprisingly, the restless Sumesh suggests we move to the office for our chat; from there he gets a better idea and we move instead to the Coffee Day on the ground floor.

Just as we reach the café there is another change in plan and we move to a little tea shop by the road; a few minutes later we move again, this time to the balcony of the Adlabs multiplex. So, talking to him was along a series of shifting locations!

The meeting with Raaghu was a more relaxed one, inside the studio. He was hosting “Churumburi”, his very popular matinee show for housewives.

As I enter, he is watching the news on the television inside the studio. The first thing I ask is, “What if that remote you have in your hand stops working and the TV is on full blast just as you’re about to go on air?” All he does is look straight into my eyes and parts his lips to form a reassuring smile. Sumesh, the man of few words, springs the first surprise of the day, “I am an introvert, very shy. I still cannot look into a girl’s eyes. I always need something to look into - a watch, my shoe strings, anything.” But hey, isn’t this profession all about being in the public sphere? Of talking at once to lakhs of people the moment the mike goes on?

“That’s what most people think. But radio is actually a one-on-one medium. When I talk, I chat with just one listener, the other one lakh people are just eavesdropping into our little conversation,” he says.

Raaghu sees a deeper meaning in his existence as a radio jockey. “Yes,” he confesses, “I am a bit of a philosopher.”

Contrary to common perception he strongly believes that the job of an RJ is not all about fun. “Yes, it is fun for the listeners but I feel I have an important responsibility. “I have one minute to make somebody smile and get on with life and that is a huge responsibility,” he says.

While it is Raaghu’s job to be the patient listener and the empathetic counsellor, Sumesh’s technique is to give his listeners an electric jump-start to the day. While their means might be different they both work towards the same end.

Despite their apparent differences, the two have one common trait and that is that they are both rebels. Sumesh dropped out of a prestigious engineering college in Mysore, not because he was bad in studies.

“My parents wanted me to finish engineering and get a government job. Can you imagine? I just lost interest man,” he says in a manner that is typical of his generation.

Raaghu ran away from home as a teenager. “My father wanted me to join the family business but I wanted my achievements to be by choice, not by chance,” he says. Raaghu reveals that he was born in a small village in Belgaum. “I have known acute poverty. My father worked in a small hotel when I was young,” he says.

For the first seven years, after he left home he worked as a stone merchant in North Karnataka. A debilitating accident led him back to his parents, who were by now in Bangalore. He later started working as an instalment collector for small money lenders. From here he somehow managed to get a foothold into the world of Kannada theatre and here he is now.

The much younger Sumesh holds Tarun Katyal the young COO of Big FM in high esteem. “He is one of the youngest COOs in the country. He is my biggest inspiration,” he says.

In terms of age Sumesh is perhaps where Raaghu was more than a decade ago. He might not have experienced the harshness that life meted out to Raaghu but he comes across as an ‘all weather guy’ – just like his older counterpart.

Both are intuitive and intelligent people. Come to think of it I get a feeling Raaghu and Sumesh are one single person, at different points in time.

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