RJ Arundhati explains how she works from home with a joint family

If you are a true-blue Banarasi you would have woken up to the mellifluous voice of RJ Arundhati or had tea with her show playing on the background on an odd week day. A multi-talented young voice of the city, this lady has been our constant morning tea-time companion for the people of Banaras for the last two years. Adept at mimicry and hustling it, she keeps her audience entertained and engaged talking about many a social awareness campaigns on Big FM’s “Big Chai With RJ Arundhati”. The good news is we haven’t been deprived of her positive presence even during the lockdown. She talks to The IndianPreneur about how she overcame the challenges of working from home as a Radio Jockey and reached out to her audience in the most difficult times we as a city have seen.

While for most people Work-From-Home means working on their computer and attending zoom calls, doing a radio show from within the confines of one’s bedroom is an entirely different ball-game. “My company does not want to take any kind of risk for its employee’s life. So, we continue to work from home. I had never imagined in my dreams that radio can be operated from home. When all the Radio Jocks were asked to host their show from home, we were confused and worried about the operations. The biggest concern was maintaining my voice quality. But I went ahead with the show nonetheless,” she says recalling initial hiccups.

For an RJ their studio and the sound equipment are an integral part of their job. The studio provides soundproof ambience and the technical set-up inside it allows one to smoothly switch between hosting the show and playing the songs. “Maintaining the standards of the show and sound quality was the biggest challenge in the initial days.

However, soon she devised some creative techniques to keep the quality of the broadcast intact and talk to her audience without any glitches. In fact she says, “I have started enjoying doing my show from my home now.”

Her main mantra is not to focus on what she doesn’t have but to make do with the resources that are available to her. For instance, the fact that she lives in a joint family could have horribly gone against her as it is difficult to find a quiet corner to relay her show and talk to her audience. Instead, Arundhati incorporated bits and pieces of her life and introduced family members to her audience. This creative way of turning a disadvantage into advantage has won the hearts of her audience. “I improvised and brought my family members on the show. The older members like my mother and grandmother were also an entertaining addition to my show. My niece Laduu was very happy to be part of the show. My listeners would reach out to me on my social media accounts and ask about my family members if they weren’t on the show sometimes. They are particularly in love with Laduu,” she adds.

Explaining why this improvisation has worked so well, she says, “In our country family relationships are celebrated. So, bringing my family members on the show helped them feel connected. This proved to be engaging content at a time when all of us were either locked up under the same roof or not able to meet each other due to lockdown.”

Arundhati feels that while the lockdown has been a huge challenge to beat, learning to work from home as an RJ has been a major achievement for her. At the same time, she feels she has been able to contribute as a citizen in spreading awareness about do and don’ts during this very crucial period and keeping people optimistic. “The concept of working from home while being an RJ was very new, challenging, exciting and taught me different ways in which I could reach out to people and make a difference to their lives from anywhere in the world, through my show,” says the ever-enthusiastic RJ.

You can get connected with RJ Arundhati on Instagram  and Facebook (RJ Arundhati – Big FM).