Blackberry shayar or Pied Piper of radio… .call him by whatever name, Neelesh Misra remains the man who understands the pulse of India. The master story teller, who has enthralled millions with his unique radio programme Yaad Shehr, has earned for himself a permanent place in the memoryscape of his listeners that cut across all age groups. Yet the man who has reinvented the whole tradition of story telling credits the stupendous success of his programme to his listeners, the social media and above all to what it does to people.
In Chandigarh for the Festival of Letters organised by Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi, he says, “When I started out I had no idea how the concept would go as we had no reference points.” Yet the programme that touched a nerve people didn’t even know existed, got 5.5 million responses on the Facebook itself within three months that too mainly from listeners aged between 13 to 24 years. He quips, “There goes the presumptuous assumption that the youth of today are only interested in the frivolous.” As he has been travelling the length and breadth of India, he has realised the youth of today see the world through a different prism. And it’s this modern India that is changing fast, where seven out of 10 Indians have left home, where many of them feel the pinch of loneliness that is his subject. Indeed, most of what he tells he has experienced, heard or observed. “To be a good writer you need to be a good listener and observer,” he believes.
Being a journalist has helped too, more so to think and write visually. Besides he deems, “As journalists we are privy to a world which others don’t have access to.” So what prompted him to take a hiatus from active journalism? He replies, “For over a decade I was an outsider in Bollywood, writing songs from my Blackberry from distant destinations. Today I am one in journalism.” Looking “in” at the world, he asserts, is a far better vantage point. And right now sharing his perspective are budding writers who meet at his home in Mumbai every Monday. He felt the need for this Monday Mandali for, “In India there is no mentoring in creative arts.” And the first and the foremost rule he expects the young aspiring writers he is training to follow is, “We are socially conscious commentators. We will not ridicule anyone nor discriminate on the basis of caste, creed or religion. Our stories must have a message.”
So how does he reconcile the meaningful purpose of his role as a raconteur with his foray in Bollywood? And the lyricist of over 30 films who has just penned a Mujra song, is ready to write for Jism 2 and has written scripts too. He explains his presence in Bollywood thus, “In the commerce driven world of cinema I try to write concept based songs.” So even in a Mujra song for Agent Vinod there is a thought not just inane tukbandi. Is writing songs, as he has often proclaimed, his first love? He says, “I always wanted to do many things. But be it journalism, song writing or turning dead research into books I am compelled to tell stories.” Even when he goes to deliver a talk on his book The Absent State he turns it around into a story telling session. His biggest grudge against journalism today is, “The moment the narrative begins to tell stories, we relegate it to the category of features.”
No wonder, he feels that as journalists we fail to touch people’s lives. How he affects people is evident from not only the way fans swarm him but also how in a small town in India an old woman on her death bed has begin to include him as part of the family in her morning prayers. Misty eyed he questions, “What can be more humbling than this?” So as he is all set for the new season of his radio show, it’s this love that scares him. Perhaps like Bajrang Bali, he needs a Jamwan to remind him of his strengths. Or may be not.
For the millions that tune into his programme, whom he understands better than they know themselves, are his biggest strength. As he lends voice to their aspirations, dreams and dilemmas, he becomes them and they his USP.
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