“Aren’t you guys tired of exercising your tongue all day? Why not give it a rest now?” They would retort, “That was for the public, this is just for us.” They were careful about speaking entirely in Malayalam, without using even a single word of Hindi or English, so that the rest of us couldn’t even guess at what they were saying. As soon as I got into the bus, I could hear their annoying babble, voices that sounded like stones in a tin can.

In return, I had to buy them juice or samosas along the way.Īround the time I had joined, Cattle Class was completely dominated by the Malayalam Mafia. Once or twice a month, as a big favor, they would let me get dropped off first. Several times, I had proposed, very reasonably, that since I was the first to get picked up, I should be the first to get dropped home. But the Malayalam Mafia stood as one against my appeal. I was among the last to get dropped off, with only one other person, a Sri Lankan man who worked in IT, after me.

By the time I got home after finishing the morning show and circuiting the city, it would be four or five. A scolding from Imthiaz Sir was a daily ritual. I would run in and get on air, breathless. Kapil Bhai or Asif Bhai, whoever was at the switchboard, would be covering for me with a song or an ad. By the time we reached the studio after going around hundreds of streets with him making missed calls to all the radio jockeys and surviving all the traffic jams and waiting at every signal in the city at least twice, it would often be past eight. If I didn’t get into the car by then, he would leave. He would wait for exactly one minute and give me another missed call. Yunus would give me a missed call from the street outside my house. I had to reach the studio at 6.50 every morning for my 8 AM live show. But the engine seems to be acting up…” He always had excuses. If it was not a good day for your zodiac sign, the air-conditioning didn’t work. Although it looked good from the outside, the inside was a different story. Our office vehicle is a Toyota minibus that can seat sixteen people.

Jasmine days malayalam