Monika Evstatieva, here...
Let me just start by saying, thank you for the feedback we've been getting on how to improve the program. We've been reading carefully all of your suggestions and comments and we think they are great. So, please keep them coming ...
In the meantime, it's two days until our second anniversary and we want to continue to higlight some of the most interesting moments of 2008. Today, Tell Me More producer Arwa Gunja shares her story:
Producer Arwa Gunja brings interesting stories from around the world to TMM. Monika Evstatieva/NPR
Monika...I have five copies of the book Leaving India sitting on my desk. And as a producer at NPR, you get sent so many books that clutter your desk that you can't afford the space to have more than one of the same book lying around. But perhaps the publisher was onto something, because when the fifth copy arrived, I put it in my purse and took it with me for the weekend. And I couldn't put it down.
With each page I turned, I wasn't just learning about the author's extensive family history, but about my own family's as well. Like the author, my family is from that same state in India. Like her family, mine is spread all around the world: Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, California, New Jersey and some who stayed in India. And I realized that for so long, I had never thought anything of the Indian Diaspora. I never wondered how did one family -- once so close in proximity -- ended up so far apart. And in telling me about her family, the author told me more about my family than I ever knew.
This is when I realized that this is what Tell Me More is all about. On a good day, Michel gives listeners the chance to have a window into other people's realities. But on a really good day, she creates the chance for a listener to examine their own reality, think about where they came from, remember what made them the way they are, and think about how that identity defines what happens next.
Thank you, Arwa.
Later today, our planning editor Luis Clemens shares his story on going through piles of books and one in particular that managed to tell a honest story about one of the most diverse continents on Earth- Africa. Also, reading books out loud -- we will have a funny video. So, stay tuned.
Blog to you soon.
Now it's your turn.
categories: TMM Turns Two!
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