Maitreyee Sarcar, HF (Wolverhampton University), FRSA, co-founder and co-presenter of Surtarang Broadcast on Wolverhampton City Radio 101.8 WCR FM, speaks to Anjana Parikh from Asian Lite, about broadcasting Indian classical music from a foreign soil and reaching out to more than 18 million people across the globe.
AL: Please tell us about yourself in brief?
Maitreyee: I was a student of B.Com (Hons. Secretaryship) at the Goenka College of Commerce in Calcutta from 1966 to 1968 and got married and came over to the UK to live with my husband. I have been in secretarial and administrative work all my life. I have worked in close partnership with my husband in forming an arts organisation called Surdhwani and held the posts of general secretary at first [Feb 1987 – Dec 2003]and later the post of Director and Company Secretary of Surdhwani from December 2003 till August 2010.
- Mr Sistachar Sarcar and Mrs Maitreyee Sarcar
AL: What made you and your husband start Surtarang Radio show?
Maitreyee: While we were running Surdhwani and were promoting Indian classical music and dance through it, we were invited by Radio WCRA and Challenge FM to broadcast Indian classical music in 1993 for a brief period. We did the show as “Raag Rang”. Later in April 2007, we were again invited by WCR FM to join them and my husband accepted their invitation and we started broadcasting as Surtarang.
AL: Surtarang has now joined The City Radio, an online radio service. Can you tell us about its journey so far?
Maitreyee: WCR FM underwent a re-organisation and we were invited by the City Radio to broadcast on Saturdays for 2 hours in the afternoon. Their offer was far more attractive to us than one hour show with WCR FM and we accepted the offer from the City Radio to join them with effect from March 1, 2014. With effect from June 2, they decided to change the name to Gorgeous Radio and Gorgeous Xtra to avoid confusion with other radios with the same name as the City Radio. Our listeners can tune in through www.gorgeousxtra.co.uk every Saturday between 5 & 7 pm GMT.
Since June 22, 2014, Surtarang has been repeated on Sunday between 11.00 am and 1.00 pm GMT for people who may have missed the Saturday show or wish to listen again through www.gorgeouslive.co.uk
Last year, we collaborated with New York City Radio Live. And they have invited us again to join them this year. We’ll collaborate with NYCR Live by using their broadcasts on our Surtarang show as appropriate.
AL: Initially, how difficult was it for Surtarang to be heard and recognised in a foreign land?
Maitreyee: Aswe had already prepared the ground through Surdhwani since February 1987, it was not too difficult, and otherwise, we would not have been invited. People in Wolverhampton and throughout the United Kingdom and even farther afield were already aware of our work as internationally renowned promoter of Indian classical music.
AL: The radio show is a completely husband-wife initiative. How has this partnership grown professionally?
Maitreyee: We have been working together as husband and wife team even when we were involved with Surdhwani but then, we were part of a bigger team of directors. Since we left Surdhwani, we continued Surtarang as a husband and wife partnership because it is run from our own personal and private resources without any financial or commercial motivation whatsoever. We are still volunteers as we were when we were managing Surdhwani.
AL: What is your role in Surtarang?
Maitreyee: My husband Mr Sistachar Sarcar is in-charge of the planning and production of the shows every week in consultation with me when I concentrate on marketing and publicity through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, My Space, Orkut and other social media tools. I look after the administrative side of the partnership while my husband looks after the technical aspects of running Surtarang. I have internet links with more than 18 million people throughout the world to help the publicity of Surtarang.
AL: As a husband-wife partnership, you also must be having your share of agreements and disagreements. As a woman, how do you handle such disagreements?
Maitreyee: It is easy since we have been working as close partners in our private as well as public life. He is head of the partnership and I have accepted it gladly simply because things he can do I cannot and he has been running Surdhwani as the chief executive and I was the general secretary or the company secretary of Surdhwani. We have always worked like this. We do have disagreements just as we have it as husband and wife in our personal life but we have learnt to overcome them through our faith in God and by following the divine inspirations we receive from Him otherwise we could not have lived together for the past 46 years. Our success has come from following the example of our God with respect to humility and submission to authority. By following the scriptures, I have been successful in dealing with our disagreements.
AL: You’ve received several awards including the UK’s Woman of the Year 2008 Award and Global Indian Achievers Award for your voluntary work. How does voluntary work help a person in his/her self-development?
Maitreyee: I did not get the UK’s Woman of the Year award but was nominated for it. All the other awards inspire me to some extent but I am fully aware that I am not worthy of them. They give some satisfaction but I know that I have far greater goals to achieve by humbling myself to my God. I know that I must not allow those things to cloud my vision for reaching greater heights.
Voluntary work has a greater advantage over paid work in so far as it does not make you greedy for more and get into many evils which are related to financial gains. We do these for our love and passion for the pure classical music without any other motivation. We feel that it is a privilege for us to be able to serve the community at large through our Surtarang Broadcast. There is a much greater satisfaction in voluntary work than working for commercial or monetary gain.
AL: You’ve been recognised for playing a proactive role in strengthening the Indo-British ties. Do you feel that culture of a country for eg; India can encourage foreign investments in the country?
Maitreyee: Foreign investments is a matter of economics and in my humble opinion, culture has an insignificant role to play in this matter. Culture may have a role to play in the matter of economics only if it leads to commercial gain otherwise not. Indian classical music has very little to offer in this respect as far as I can understand.