Descendants of M V Gopalaswamy, founder of Mysuru Akashvani station
DH Photo
Nudi Naada Sangama, a day-long programme, has been organised on Friday, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Mysuru Akashvani.
Director General of Akashvani and News Division Pragya Paliwal Gaur will inaugurate the celebrations at 5 pm, while Suttur seer Shivaratri Deshikendra Swami, member of the erstwhile royal family Pramoda Devi Wadiyar and scholar T V Venkatachala Shastri will be present, according to a press note from Deputy Director and Head of Akashvani, Mysuru.
How Mysuru Akashvani got its name
M V Gopalaswamy (MVG), a Psychology professor, launched a private radio station ‘Akashvani’ in Mysuru on September 10, 1935. Its name went on to become the official name of the national radio service - All India Radio (AIR). In 1957, Akashvani was given as AIR’s on-air name. At present, Akashvani is officially used, instead of AIR.
The first radio station of India was established in June 1923 as Radio Club of Bombay (now Mumbai). It was followed by Calcutta Radio Club, five months later. Thus Mysuru Akashvani was the third radio station in India.
Pioneering founder
MVG, born in Tamil Nadu, in 1896, died on June 29, 1957, while serving at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), in Bengaluru. MVG is the first academician in India, to start multiple choice (MCQ) or objective type questions. He was responsible for the establishment of the second Psychology department in India, in the University of Mysore (UoM) in 1924. The first one was in Calcutta University in 1916.
MVG started ‘Shishuvihara’ (pre-school) - Gopalaswamy Shishuvihara – a first such initiative in the entire South India, in 1928. Now, preschools are called Shishuviharas in Kannada. Writer G P Rajarathnam’s famous Shishu Geethegalu (children’s poems) were written for the students of MVG’s Shishuvihara.
Cycle Rally planned
Additional DC of Mysuru P Shivaraju will flag off a Cycle Rally at Sri Kote Anjaneya Swamy temple, near the North Gate of Mysuru Palace, at 7.30 am. It will conclude at the Mysuru Akashvani.
UoM Registrar M K Savitha will inaugurate a variety programmes by college students at 10 am. Students of MMK and SDM College for Women, Maharaja College, JSS College for Women, and SBRR Mahajana First Grade College, will present the programmes. Nada LayaLahari, directed by A P Krishna Prasad, will be staged.
Folk art show
Vice-president of Mysore Association of Hospitals and Nursing Homes (MAHAN) N Gururaj will inaugurate stalls at 10.30 am, as part of the celebration. There will be a folk art presentation by various troupes, in association with the Kannada and Culture department, at 4.30 pm.
At 6.30 pm, Lakshmi Nagaraj will present a classical and light music recital, while H L Shivashankara Swamy will present fusion music.
Family members of MVG and Mysuru Akashvani’s first assistant director Na Kasturi, and achievers in various fields, but associated with Akashvani, will be felicitated on the occasion.