JOIN USWhen I joined the Bombay station of All India Radio in 1946, I little anticipated the strange encounters I would have with celebrities – both present and future. It happened one night when they used to broadcast western classical music live between 10 pm and 11 pm on its main channel.
Assembled in the studio were well known violinists Mehli Mehta and Homi Kanga accompanied by George Lester on the cello and Mario Pagliarin on the piano. Mehta, who was also an eminent conductor for the Bombay Philharmonic Orchestra, asked me to position the microphone in order to balance the different instruments.
I did not know much of western music, but I opened the sound board of the piano, placed the mike in front of it and told the violinists and cellist to sit facing it at the correct distance to get a proper equilibrium of the ensemble. I then placed myself in the control room and waited for the programme to begin.
When it did, to my horror, all I could hear were the violin strings minus the piano notes! Thinking that the microphone may have got disturbed, I peeped through the ‘spy hole’ of the studio. I was shocked to discover that the sound board of the piano which I had just opened had been shut again. The artistes were already halfway through the opening piece and could not do anything but continue playing.
So, I quietly opened the door of the control room and entered the ‘live’ studio to investigate what had gone wrong. I went straight to the piano and opened the sound board. Imagine my shock to see two youngsters impudently grinning at me. I could not make out when or how they had gatecrashed into the studio. I caught hold of them and tweaked their ears soundly before dragging them out.
After that, the programme went off with no hitch. When the concert was over, I learnt that the two boys whom I had chastised were the sons of the violinist Mehli Mehta.
Fortunately for me, he took my action in the right spirit and even apologised for their mischievous behaviour. The rest is history. The elder boy, Zubin, went on to become a world famous conductor himself. I sometimes wonder if the distinguished maestro Zubin Mehta remembers that night in the studio of All India Radio in Bombay when a junior engineer tweaked his ear and dragged him out for disturbing his father’s concert!