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It's Ajay, machan

Radio Mirchi (98,3 FM) has become one of the most popular FMs among the youth of Chennai. One of its lively comperes is Ajay Titus who arrests the attention of his audience with his Madras Tamil. He hosts a show called 'Total Udaans' which promises to tickle your funny bones. The programme targets youth in the age group of 15 to 30 and gives useful information, gossip and also tips to make everyday life easy and happy. He spells the          "tomorrow-is-another-day-why-do-you-need-to-worry-about-it-now" attitude as he sits for a friendly chat for ChennaiOnline.

Tell us about yourself Ajay

I was born in Kerala, brought up in Chennai, settled in Chennai, studied in Chennai in a lot of schools, exactly five schools, did my hotel management in Asan Memorial and postgraduation in hotel management in Bane's College and saw the advertisement for audition in the newspaper and came to Radio Mirchi, got my job and here I am. I was never trained to be a radio jockey; I didn't study to be a radio jockey but that's what I am now.

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So, you just walked in thinking that you might become one?

I like music. I used to listen to a lot of radio when I was in school and college; I like Niladri Bose, the radio jockey. We had a radio workshop while in college. So I went and attended that radio workshop for six months before I came to Radio Mirchi. I guess the experience I had there got me my job.

Comment on your lingo, Ajay?

I can sound normal and like anybody else. But I don't like to be normal. I always wanted to do it differently. The language I speak is very normal but I try to spice it up so that what I present comes out differently. Till now  it has always been that you should sound soft and slow, with stresses on your words exactly and all that. I just said I'm not going to do that. I wanted to be like how kids talk in schools and guys talk in colleges, how friends talk when they are going out to eat or drink. I wanted to do something that's normal and at the same time that has not been done in radio before. I just try to be friendly. The listeners should be able to relate to you. Why would they want to listen to a stranger? You need to listen to somebody who is a friend of us. I try to be one among them, be a friend so that they can relate to you.

It's usually art which imitates life, and sometimes life starts imitating life. In the same way, if people start talking in "udaans" language, how will you feel?

Good. The world will be a much better place to live in. You create a revolution and everybody is following you.

There are some people who insist on purity of language. They might feel that what you do is a complete massacre of Tamil. What's your answer to them?

See, we are living in changing times. We can't be doing the same thing that we did 100 years ago. Everything has got its metamorphosis and process. There's transformation everywhere. Each language has passed through certain channels and has come through some changes. Even if we take Tamil, we are not doing the same 'Ilakkia' Tamil we started off with. The Tamil that Tiruvalluvar and the poets spoke was not the Tamil that we speak today; everything comes through a process and at the end of it it's different from what it was in the beginning. I think right now the Tamil we talk in Chennai is a mix of a lot of changes that happened over a period of time and even the perfectionists who are talking so much about the purity of the language have come through a process they are not even aware of. They are surrounded by a world which says to them that this is the right thing. Who knows, the language that we talk would become the Tirukkural of our age.

Do you think almost all college-goers talk like that?

In English we have different slangs. You don't talk normal English when you are with friends. "Hey, wassup?" - that's how you talk. In the classroom you talk a kind of Tamil but when you come out, when you are in the canteen, you talk a different kind of Tamil. It's cool Tamil. Usually, they talk cool Tamil, not the formal Tamil.

Do you criticise people while on air?

I make a very, very, very conscious effort not to criticise anybody. I make sure that I touch areas that are less controversial and even if there's controversy in it, I will not exceed my limits. I do not criticise. I take the good out of everything. Even if there's bad in it, I minus the bad and look at the good.

Yours is a live programme, right? Do you make mistakes while compering and what do you do to make it up?

I've made mistakes a lot of times. Life is all about making mistakes and learning from mistakes. First of all you need to admit that you made a mistake because people are not dumb. They know you have made a mistake. So what's the point in covering it up? You have to manage the situation and make it look funny. When you make a mistake, you can once say, "I want to check whether you are alert." But you can't go on with it. Sometimes you can blame it on a technical problem. You could say, "There was a technical problem with my tongue. Let me adjust it and play it again." Sometimes I say, "Sorry it's not me but something else that's talking in the studio." But you need to keep coming out with new things. When you try to make it up, you shouldn't repeat yourself.

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