At 9 pm on March 26, about 48 hours into India’s 21-day lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic, sound artist and musician Yashas Shet...
At 9 pm on March 26, about 48 hours into India’s 21-day lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic, sound artist and musician Yashas Shetty kicked off an internet music show from his minimalist home studio in Bengaluru. Dealing with the theme of “isolation”, Shetty played tracks cutting across genres and time periods – from works of Beethoven to ’70s rock band Joy Division. Since then, The Radio Quarantine has gone live every night and will continue at least until the lockdown ends on April 14.
Across the country, a similar project had come to life in Kolkata the previous day. A group of friends came together to set up Radio Quarantine Kolkata on an online streaming platform. They wanted to provide “an intimate space for solidarity and to preserve friendships” even as “the word ‘social isolation’ kept being bandied around”, said one of the people behind the station, Darshana Mitra, who teaches at the National University of Juridical Science.
The station runs through the day, with original programming between 5 pm to 2 am. Radio Quarantine Kolkata includes a kids’ show, story-telling sessions, and a music show. One of its more popular segments, “Quarantine Diaries”, includes social commentary and interviews, and has attempted to...
