Salaam, Namaste and Sawadee Kha!” Thrice a week, a chirpy, soul-elevating voice bears that bilingual bonhomie greeting over Bangkok’s cyberwaves.
Indo-Thai Radio Jockey Sonia brings a slice of India to the heart of Thailand
HONG KONG: “Salaam, Namaste and Sawadee Kha!” Thrice a week, a chirpy, soul-elevating voice bears that bilingual bonhomie greeting over Bangkok’s cyberwaves, and into tens of thousands of homes in this sizzling fun city.
The peppy voice is that of Sonia Boonchanasukit, a young radio jockey on RadioBangkok.net, Asia’s leading English-language Internet radio station, who hosts “Bangkok Bollywood”, a hit show that brings a slice of India to the heart of Thailand.
There’s plenty of pulsating Bollywood music and more on the show, as Sonia takes her listeners on a leisurely walkabout of Bangkok’s ‘Little India’ and introduces them to many aspects of a culture that enchants people in many parts of the world.
“What we’re trying to do,” Sonia told DNA during a recent phone-in interview, “is to market the Indian lifestyle, Indian music and Indian culture to a global audience. The international community is finally opening up to Indian cultural influences, and all over the world the response to Bollywood, and all things Indian, has been phenomenal.”
There’s a large Indian community in Bangkok, and as in most big world cities, there’s a ‘Little India’ as well. The Bangkok Bollywood show, which started up three weeks ago, has already proved hugely popular — and not just with these Indian audiences, says Sonia.
“There was a time, not long ago, when Thai people weren’t ready to try Indian food or anything Indian. But that’s changed. Of late, Bollywood is so in-your-face, and if you go to any Indian restaurant — and you have plenty of them in Bangkok — almost half the customers are Thai.”
On her show, apart from playing eternally favourite Bollywood numbers, Sonia interviews interesting people of Indian origin in Bangkok — “someone who is partly Indian, and who bridges the gap between Indians and everybody else in the world!”
She also introduces little-known restaurants that serve up traditional Indian cuisine. “I want my recommendations to rise above the predictable,” says Sonia.
“Anyone who’s been in Bangkok long enough can name five Indian restaurants, but I try to showcase those that aren’t the most obvious. It could be that little samosawalla down a sidestreet who gives great value for money at 5 baht!”
Sonia herself has an Indo-Thai-Chinese cultural heritage: her father, a Sindhi from Pune, left India over 30 years ago to seek his fortune in Bangkok, and married a Thai-Chinese woman there. (When he adopted Thai nationality, he had to trade in his Sindhi surname – Butani – for a Thai one – Boonchanasukit.)
Of her genetically rich identity, Sonia says: “I’m Thai and Indian in equal measure.
At home, we speak Hindi, Thai and English, and my sister and I grew up watching Hindi movies, so those influences have deep roots. Even now, on Monday nights, I eat dal, bhindi, chawal and, being Sindhi, papad!”
When Sonia went to the US for an undergraduate program in journalism, those ‘Indian’ roots were strengthened somewhat.
“Those four years of being away from home made me a little bit more ‘Indian’ as I clung to my roots,” she says, laughing.
And back in Bangkok, she even teaches Bollywood dance to Thai girls at the Salsa Hacha dance studio.
Apart from RadioBangkok.net, Sonia anchors news programme for Radio Thailand, the national public radio. But, it’s the entertainment show that she fancies rather more. “I find it more creative,” says Sonia.
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