My Path to Becoming a Local Radio DJ

When I was a kid, I wanted the biggest life I could picture for myself. I spent hours imagining what that would look like. Acting was the goal. Everyone warned me how brutal the odds were, something like a 1% success rate, which is the kind of statistic people repeat until it sounds like law.

So I moved to Delhi to chase it. The early months were humbling. No roles came my way, partly because I had never trained, and partly because I was standing in a line of roughly ten thousand people wanting the same thing. People in that world will tell you that acting demands something unmistakably yours, a quality that sets you apart, a thing you simply do better than the person beside you at the audition.

Once I understood the size of the wall in front of me, I figured training was the answer, and I went looking for an acting school. That plan collapsed quickly. It cost money I didn't have, and my parents weren't going to hand it over.

I took the obvious next step: find work. A music shop hired me for barely anything. The pay was almost an insult, but I had run out of alternatives, so I stayed.

One afternoon four girls wandered in to browse. I was single at the time and not thrilled about the reminder, but they were customers in my shop, so helping them find music for their band was my job. They pulled out what felt like a thousand CDs, examined everything, and bought nothing. My work piled up for no reward. Eventually I snapped a little and told them I was done pulling CDs for them. They left with hurt feelings, and I felt bad about it. At 8pm, locking up, I passed them outside.

Somewhere in my irritation I had forgotten something about myself. Back in school I was known for my music. I had collected albums most people never heard of, recorded by singers with real talent, and that reputation had served me well before. Standing there, I decided to mention it to them. Whenever the acting question gnawed at me, that reminder to focus is what kept me steady.

The next morning I pressed one of my hand-picked discs into their hands and went back to the counter.

About a month passed before they returned. They had played my CD at a college party and it landed perfectly. Then they said something that rearranged my plans entirely: I should be a radio DJ. It fit who I was in a way acting never quite had.

That idea stuck. I took a week off from the shop to hunt for DJ openings and came across an audition that felt like the right fit. The judges responded to my style and the way I chose music.

Then came the live on-air test. I was shaking. What steadied me was something my parents used to say: when you play, play to win, or don't play at all. I said a quick prayer that the show would hold together, and it did. The town took to it, and the show became something people tuned in for.

These days I try to pass it along. I run free music training for groups of students, teaching them the work I do, and it has given me a way to put my experience into other people's hands.

-Anonymous Contributor