To all Kannada Lovers:

Kannada Kasturi is Back in Action from this Friday (June 29^th , 2007) 9 to 10 p.m.

For the ones who are wondering what on earth is Kannada Kasturi, let me brief you about it.

Kannada Kasturi is a Kannada language based program that was being aired on 89.3-Dhoom FM on Fridays between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. between January 2005 and September 2005.

It was a program started by Kishore Krishnappa & Prashanth Mysore, two dedicated individuals who had a common liking for anything Kannada and music. So, the obvious thing to do was start a program on a local channel to air good Kannada music, exclusively.

I still remember how it all began as dinner-time conversation between Kishore and Prashanth. Pankaja (Prashanth’s wife) and me looked at eachother and thought to ourselves : ‘o.k. yet another enthusiastic project …which will soon fade out…’

But, it wasn’t one such projects. They were determined and followed it to completion.

I still remember how we four: Prashanth n Pankaja and Kishore n myself went to the radio station @ Metropark. We promptly wished them luck, albeit praying hard within, that nothing goes wrong for them. God listened to our prayers. Nothing went wrong and their first program was aired, live, mind you, without any flaws. Although, I still remember Kishore’s quivering voice and I thought to myself - is it him?? After the show he confirmed it when he said he wanted a bottle of water to carry to the studio next time, as he had a parched throat from nervouseness.  

I remember how Prashanth’s family in the U.S. was so eagerly huddled around the radio to listen to him. His family in India, were up in the wee hours of morning to listenm to their ‘maga’s’ voice on the web.

This went on for a while. The wives waiting outside the radio station, at times gritting their teeth, as sometimes they would extend the program due to popular demands. The upside of this was sometimes we got to have dinner out. So, there was no complaining after that. (just kidding folks!!!)

Listeners loved the program. So many would call up to request songs, talk about their experiences, calling to make dedications etc. One particular episode on ‘songs we grew up listening to’ particularly struck a chord with most listeners. So, there was a downpour of calls. When fm reception was low at times, listeners would drive to an area where the reception was better and listen to their favorite program.

For some reason the radio station went kaput and so did Kannada Kasturi. Everybody was disappointed to say the least. It had brought about so much of camaraderie and good cheer among the listeners. Infact, we did have a meet @ Shashi & Vasantha’s residence, which was, needless to say, wonderful. The ladies even got to wear coorgie style sarees to the meet!!!

Folks, these two fun-loving, cool individuals are back with a bang doing what they like the most!!! For listeners who would like to listen to the program from the rest from the rest of the world, they are available free online @ www. dhoomfm.com.

So, here’s to Kishore and Prashanth …

Good luck on your comeback !!!

Enjoy !!!