This Jamaican radio show is all about India

Christmas in the Land of Eternal Curry…" so begins a festive special segment of a radio show on Kool 97 FM in Jamaica. Over the next hour, the host discusses music – singing of hymns in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Konkani; food – different kind of rotis and paranthas; and Christmas traditions in India. "We talked about the [Indian Christmas] festivities, how the markets are decked and how Santa Claus is in almost every store," says Roxene Nickle, programmes and production supervisor at the radio station.

But what got a country, 15,000 kilometers away, interested in the goings-on of Indian Christmases? The show made its debut in July 2018. It's host, Amitabh Sharma, an Indian-born media professional conceptualised Namaste India – that airs every Wednesday night at 9:30pm – after living in the Caribbean for 12 years. "India has rich and deep-rooted historical connections with the Caribbean," Sharma tells this writer in an emailed interview. Speaking about the inspiration for the special Christmas segment's name he adds, "there is no other way to describe India but the 'Land of Eternal Curry'."

Fascinated with Indian spices and curries, the radio channel even has another segment dedicated to the common Indian curry spice called Number One Spice. "It was evident that the binding factor between Jamaica and the wider Caribbean to India is the curry," says Sharma, who talks of Jerk Chicken, the Jamaican equivalent of chicken and mutton curry. Other than food – kolam, sari, yoga, and the qualities of the numerous spices are also touched upon.

Kool 97 FM has a total of nearly 1.2 lakh listeners (as per All Media Survey of Jamaica, 2014) and an additional unaccounted lot tune in via Mixlr (www.mixlr.com/kool97fmlive), giving it a worldwide reach. The show hosts dignitaries like High Commissioner of India to Jamaica Sevala Naik, British High Commissioner to Jamaica Asif Ahmad, non-resident High Commissioner of Jamaica to India Aubyn Hill and Kimberley Morgan officer in the Protocol Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. Morgan was so taken up by the show that she started the hashtag – #YouCantUnseeIndia. "We have listeners from India, expatriate Indians along with Jamaicans who want to learn about the Indian culture and how it has impacted their lives," Sharma asserts. While his co-worker, Nickle, chimes in with, "They are surprised to learn that some of the things from their daily lives originate in India, like certain kinds of curry powders, moringa, and even ganja."

Namaste India also features off the menu, street food orders like cutting chai, vada pav along with long winding discussions on, "how Indians eat out of banana leaves," and, "the tradition of eating with hands [sans cutlery]," which Sharma says is intriguing for Jamaican listeners. And yet, somehow it takes a radio show that is being held across oceans, to rekindle the joy of certain nuanced ways of Indian living.