The date was 8th April 2010. I wound up work well ahead of schedule to hit the road and be at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium for the IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers. Though not a keen follower of cricket, I was pretty excited with the prospect of watching the match live at the stadium for the first time ever. Thoughts of seeing the players play for "real" and being in that ocean of the cheering RCB crowd was filling up my head as I was driving down the busy Hosur road listening to Melodee Austin on Radio indigo.Halfway into the drive, out of the blue, Melodee brought up a very silly, yet interesting quiz contest - she popped up the question "What is my favourite Ice Cream flavour? . Message me at 52919. If you get it right, you get to win a couple of vouchers from Natural Ice creams". At a traffic signal in one of the intersections, i just hit the keys on my cell phone and typed "Black Currant" and sent it to the magic number.. Not so much for the ice cream, but only because I was getting bugged by the bright red light ahead of me... :) Some time later, I get a call... ..
"Hello?"
"Haie.. This is Melodee from Radio Indigo.. How are y.... "
"Heyyyy Melodee.!!. How are you?? " I was so excited to listen to that charming voice speak to me. Crazy.. But I can't help it if somebody from the Radio station calls me to put me on air.. :) :)
"Ha ha ha... I'm good.. how are you? "
"I'm good too..thank you so much.. "
"So, may I know your name?"
"I'm Bopanna "
"So Bopanna, Black currant is your fav flavour or mine?" He he.
"Well, I think it's your fav flavour, because it's one of mine too.. "
"How sweet.!. Bopanna, I'll put you on air now.. so if you're driving, just pull over.. It's just gonna be 2 mins, in and out.. "
"Yes of course.. I'm on it :) :)"
And so, for the very first time, Bopanna came on air, swinging to the 'Melody' of Radio Indigo.. I tell you, it is a great feeling to listen to yourself on air conversing with a beautiful voice.. Things do get exciting when you least expect them, don't they? =)
So, two first timers for me this day.. Watching a live match being played by cricket biggies and listening to myself on radio... and the result- addition to the list of my memories that will be cherised for a long time.. :)
Cheers !
