Access Radio 783AM - Bhakti Prabha

Bhakti Prabha

	Devotional readings and music presented by Bala Thomson. Presented in Hindi.
	Next broadcast on 783AM: 7am on Saturday 5th July.

About the Programme

Bala Thomson’s history with Wellington Access Radio is as long as the station itself, and close on 26 years after hosting The Indian Programme on Sunday evenings for the first time, she shows no sign of giving up what she believes is an important community service.

Others agree with her, as her status as a justice of the peace, a marriage celebrant, and the holder of the Queen’s Service Medal, for her voluntary service to the Indian community, clearly shows.

Add to that the fact that her primary show, The Indian Community Programme, was top Community and Access Programme for 2003 in the NZ Radio Awards for that year, and continues to maintain the high standard expected of an award-winning show, and you have a pen portrait of a highly professional communicator.

The Indian Community Programme was one of the original programmes broadcast when Access Radio began in 1981. Today it is the only one that is still aired weekly by the first and only broadcaster. Now in its twenty-sixth year it features a delicious fortnightly cooking/recipe section and up-to-minute information from Bollywood.

Bala’s devotion to reaching out to her community does not rest with the Indian Community Programme: 20 years ago she started another, called Bhakti Prabha, specifically for listeners devoted to the soft tones and haunting and restful chants of Indian religious music.

This is Bala’s Saturday morning start-of-the-day hour so appreciated also by people of other communities and creeds. And in her unique way, she does both programmes in three languages – Hindi, Gujarati (her mother tongue) and English -- and thus succeeds in reaching a remarkably wide audience.

Bala’s talents are spread even wider: as well as celebrating more than 25 years with Access Radio, she is also completing a quarter of a century of teaching cooking in community colleges around Wellington. Today, her cooking classes are found in Hutt Valley, specifically at Hutt Valley High School and Upper Hutt College where – as demand arises – she can teach Indian, Italian, Eastern or Chinese-Thai cooking. Thousands of students have learned exotic and tasty dishes from Bala, and many come back year after year to expand their skills.