Thursday, July 03, 2008

Good Morning, Chennai

By Hema Vijay

When Meenakshi, 28, tuned in to the radio, it was only to lighten her daily drudgery of washing dishes and clothes. However, just by accident, the young housewife heard the strains of 107.8 MHz. "It was the dialect that caught my attention. The voice on air sounded different. The woman on the radio was speaking 'slum' Tamil, unlike the anglicised Tamil common on the FM channel," she recounts. Meenakshi lives with her husband and three children in a one-room shanty in Chennai's Teynampet slum.
The female voice on the radio reminded listeners about the polio vaccination drive being conducted in the city that day and of the deformities that a polio attack can lead to. "I wound up the washing and dragged my children to locate a polio camp," admits Meenakshi, now a loyal listener of 'Penne Nee Arivaai' (Lady, You Should Know). 'Penne Nee Arivaai' is a community radio programme broadcast thrice a day by M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women, Chennai.

Full story at :
http://newsblaze.com/story/20080701111926zzzz.nb/topstory.html

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