No body from my generation could grow up without knowing him, Celebrity Radio presenter, Ameen Sayani, expires

Ameen Sayani suffered a heart attack on Tuesday night (Feb 20, 2024) and was taken to a hospital but could not be saved. He was 91.

His style of Hindi romantic songs made every man think, he too has the 'voice' of the legendary RJ -radio jockey of that era. The jockey word was no known to us and even the short form RJ came much later. Sayani had a distinct way of putting things. One would simply fall in love .....

and next day, you will have boys either humming those numbers of the 1960s and 1970s ... or trying to imitate Ameen Sayani.

The new generation may not believe ... he too used to say ---  'Namaskar bhaiyon aur behno..." ..... 

Did Namo pick up the phrase for his Mann-Ki-Baat ? Who knows? Plagiarism is an art right from the era of Shakespeare -- provided you know how to do it !!

Nostalgia .. has a road to memories certainly;

Few are aware that superstar Amitabh Bachchan had nurtured a dream of becoming a radio presenter before trying his luck in Bollywood. He even visited Mumbai studio Of All India Radio for auditions.

Popular radio announcer Ameen Sayani revealed in 2014 that he did not have time to meet Bachchan as the actor had not taken an appointment for a voice audition.

"It was somewhere in late sixties when I used to do 20 shows a week, spending most of the day locked up in the sound studio as I was involved in the every process of radio programming. One day, a young man named Amitabh Bachchan walked in without appointment for a voice audition." .....

Imagine !!

Reportedly, Sayani did not meet Amitabh as he had come without appointment. 'AIR babus' had rejected Bachchan's voice .... -- only a sarkari organisation can do such miracles, na ?? 

It was reported in 2014 that when Sayani watched blockbuster 'Anand' (1971), where Big B starred along with iconic Rajesh Khanna at a trial show, he was 'bowled over' by the personality and voice of Bachchan without knowing he was the same person who had come for the audition.

"Amitabh Bachchan had come as chief guest for an award function and he spoke about his struggling days when he had gone thrice to a radio station and was not even allowed to sit for an audition. I was shocked to hear that. Later, when I interviewed him we spoke about this at length and laughed on it," Ameen remembers. (NDTV web) 

Ameen Sayani was introduced to All India Radio, Bombay, by his brother Hamid Sayani. Ameen participated in English programmes there for ten years.

Later, he helped popularise All India Radio in India. Sayani was also a part of various movies throughout the years like Bhoot Bungla, Teen Devian, Boxer, and Qatl. He appeared in all of these movies in the role of an announcer in some event.

Sayani assisted his mother, Kulsum Sayani, in editing, publishing and printing a fortnightly journal for neo-literates, under the instructions of Mahatma Gandhi. The fortnightly, RAHBER (1940 to 1960), was simultaneously published in the Devnagri (Hindi), Urdu and Gujarati scripts 

– but all in the simple "Hindustani" language promoted by Gandhi.

Some of the better known radio shows produced (mainly for consumer product clients):

CIBACA (formerly BINACA) GEETMALA: broadcast since 1952 – mainly over Radio Ceylon, and later over Vividh Bharati (AIR) – for a total of over 42 years. It was again revived after a gap of 4 years, and was aired over the National Network of Vividh Bharati for 2 years as COLGATE CIBACA GEETMALA.

S. KUMARS KA FILMI MUQADDAMA and FILMI MULAQAAT: over AIR and Vividh Bharati for 7 years. Re-commenced, after a decade, on Vividh Bharati for a year.

SARIDON KE SAATHI: 4 years. (AIR's first sponsored show.)

BOURNVITA QUIZ CONTEST (in English)

Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav may contest from Azamgarh or Kannauj !! Varanasi nominee against Modi is Surendra Singh Patel 

 The decision to appoint his nephew Dharmendra Yadav as the incharge of the Kannauj and Azamgarh parliamentary constituencies indicates that Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav might contest from both these seats or either of them. 

There is also talk about a potential rift in the pre-poll alliance between the SP and the Congress even as reports said that Yadav had decided to allocate 17 seats to the Congress against their demand for at least 21 seats out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh.

Sonia Gandhi has been the sole Congress MP elected from traditionally Congress-stronghold Rae Bareily in the outgoing Lok Sabha.  

Surendra Singh Patel will be Samajwadi candidate in Varanasi to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Patel earlier was a Member of the Legislative Assembly from Sevapuri assembly segment under Varanasi.  

He hails from Rajatalab in the Rohania assembly constituency of Varanasi.

Between 2012 to 2017, during Akhilesh Yadav's stint as the Chief Minister, he held the position of Minister of State for Public Works and Irrigation.

Sevapuri is one of the 403 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Constituencies that comes under the Varanasi district. In 2022, Neelratan Singh Patel of the Bharatiya Janata Party won the seat by defeating Surendra Singh Patel of the Samajwadi Party with a margin of 22531 votes.  

The Samajwadi Party on Tuesday announced 5 more candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh. The party has nominated SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav from the Badaun Lok Sabha seat and Surendra Singh Patel from the Varanasi seat.

The latest announcement brings the total number of SP candidates to 32 in the three lists released so far. The first list of 16 candidates was released on January 30 while 11 candidates, including Afzal Ansari, mafia don Mukhtar Ansari’s elder brother, were named on Monday. The party has nominated Afzal Ansari from the Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat.

In the new list, the SP has fielded Surendra Singh Patel from Varanasi. On the other hand, Shivpal Singh Yadav has replaced Dharmendra Yadav in Badaun, which is currently represented by Swami Prasad Maurya’s daughter, Sanghamitra, a BJP MP.

Since 2014, the BJP has strengthened its grip in Uttar Pradesh politics. The saffron party captured power in the state in 2017 and in 2022 under the leadershipof Modi-Yogi combine, the party again returned to power.

BJP won 255 seats in 403-member assembly while Samajwadi Party could make it only in 111 seats. BSP had managed to win only six.  In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Lotus party could win 62 seats as against 10 by BSP of Mayawati, five by Samajwadi Party and Congress 1. The BJP ally, Apna Dal has won 2. 

Earlier in 2014, the BJP tally in UP was 71 and that meant a clear drop of 9 seats. In 2019, notably from the BJP's point of view, a major win was in Amethi when Congress president Rahul Gandhi was humbled by BJP nominee and Union Minister Smriti Irani. 

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