When the lockdown was announced in West Bengal by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on 23 March, a group of friends including university professors, PhD scholars and filmmakers set up a web-based community radio station to help people fight lockdown anxieties and bring people, who were stuck at home, together, thereby engendering a sense of solidarity in them.
In this community radio, participants played home recordings, rattled out monologues, and took part in poetry or short story readings. It also streamed doctors’ recommendations for people to stay healthy.
“The idea took shape while chatting in a WhatsApp group. [We realised] It’s lockdown and everyone has to stay at home. These can be lonely times. We thought: ‘Why don’t we come together on a platform where we can be in touch with friends and others, share our quarantine experience and get to know what doctors are saying about the Coronavirus?’ What better way than a community radio station!” said Kasturi Basu, a filmmaker and one of those behind the station.
The programme was not only limited to people from Bengal, but also included the Bengali diaspora from places like London and the US.
There are shows for kids (Chotoder Ashor), adults (Golper Ashor), pining lovers, people worried about the pandemic (Quarantine diary, which is a news round up) and many more.
You can tune in to Radio Quarantine here.
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