During his holidays, Saagar and his friends would be subjected to Woman’s hour on BBC Radio 4 second hand, as their mothers listened. They would later have amusing/interesting discussions about breast feeding, female education and employment challenges. This station was pre-set on the car-radio and at home. It was designated as the ‘old people’s’ radio-station by him. Invariably, ‘Gardener’s question time’ would come on while we were in the car together, travelling over the weekend. It was quaint by its sheer irrelevance to us as we could barely keep our 4 nameless indoor plants alive. Our urban pre-occupations meant we didn’t have a gardening vocabulary.
‘Just a minute’ was our all-time favourite – a panel of funny people asked to speak for one whole minute on a given topic without repetition, hesitation or deviation. The seemingly innocent topics often held great potential for hilarity, for example, billiards, the best thing about cats, how I spread a little happiness, keeping a straight face, my love of the absurd, garages and such. The correct and incorrect challenges posed by the panellists generated tremendous amount of laughter. Our attempts at giving each other topics resulted in great amusement.
On Thursday evening I was asked if I’d like to be a guest on Woman’s hour to talk about Saagar. It was unbelievable. It made me smile and cry at the same time. What a paradox! Of course I’d love to be on Woman’s hour. Under these circumstances? Meeting Jenni Murray was an honour. She was down to earth and professional, looking just as I imagined, in her trademark glasses sitting just above the tip of her nose.I told her she had my dream job. She said Joan Baez had been in the studio the day before, sitting at the same chair as me. How cool! Oops! Saagar prohibited me from saying ‘cool’ as he thought it sounded all wrong coming from me. I wonder how he would feel about this interview if he knew. Maybe he does.
Despite making notes and preparing as well as I could, I was a bit flummoxed by some of the questions. I didn’t say everything I wanted to. I hope there will be other opportunities. This conversation must grow until everyone is a part of it in a meaningful and constructive way. In a way that saves lives.
A recording of the interview with brilliant and committed Mr Ged Flynn, the CEO of PAPYRUS and I:
kidsaregifts 
Donate gifts for the slum kids . Thanks .
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Very good interview Sangeeta.
I would just like to add that in all the discussions about suicide nobody has mentioned suicide as a side affect of anti depressants.Following the latest pres release in the Telegraph that “antidepressants should be given to a million more people in Britain as drugs do work”. I came across an article in the Sunday Times recently about various side effects of these drugs and ordered a book”Anatomy of an epidemic” by Robert Whitaker as well as a psychiatrist Peter Breggin books describing the role of psychiatric drugs in cases of suicide.Many people who take antidepressants become desperately depressed and suicidal without realising that their medication is causing them to think, to feel and act in this way.
See also Dr.Peter Breggin and Robert Whitaker talks on YouTube.
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Yes Sophia. Thanks for bringing that up. I agree that topic needs to be discussed more widely, especially with reference to young people. It is a travesty that pills are handed out like sweets without any emphasis on side effects or monitoring. Time is more expensive than pills I suppose. It’s a very sad state of affairs and unfortunately the media always panders to the obscenely rich pharmaceutical companies. Love, Sangeeta. xxx
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