“Shono. Amar shathe korcho kore naao, bou kintu shojhyo korbe na.”
Say one part of the above sentence to most youngsters in Kolkata and they will most definitely complete the rest.
Radio Mirchi’s now viral Bengali webshow called ‘O Maa Go’ has taken social media by storm and the two RJs Somak and Agni who play ‘Maa’ & ‘Babu’ (her son) in the show are two of Kolkata’s biggest social media influencers.
The Quint caught Mirchi Somak and Mirchi Agni on the sidelines of their daily radio show to discuss the buzz around elections in the city which goes to polls on 19 May.
“Calcutta loves its politics. Even if it's not elections, people are always talking politics whether it's in the car or in the canteen. Now what has happened is that the volume has increased,” said Somak while talking about the atmosphere in the city before the elections.
“The first-time voters are the most excited,” added Agni.
“They always keep us in the loop whenever they vote. They’re like, ‘Dada! After I pressed that button today, I felt like an independent citizen!’” he laughs.
In a comical banter that lasted an hour, we got them to dedicate songs to politicians instead of their viewers, asked them if Bengalis like their sleep more than elections and also some serious questions like how they are dealing with the influx of fake news this election season.
We came back with some fun anecdotes, some answers which could have been controversial but were downplayed with impeccable comic timing and some additional knowledge on how Bengali uncles act on voting day.
So grab your tele-bhaja and settle down for this interview where Maa reveals how she’d react to Mamata Banerjee as her daughter, and Babu talks about how much he’d love his mother if he was born as Modiji.
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