As you may know, most weekdays my tarotscopes go live on Cosmic Chat on Life&Style—the mid-morning Lotus FM show hosted by Zakia Ahmed. She’s been inviting me to get out of my comfort zone and into the studio ever since I began my stint back in late February this year. Not having my own car, getting to the SABC in central Durban is a problem.
On Tuesday, 28 November 2017, I finally got to the Lotus FM studios for the live broadcast of Cosmic Chat, thanks to my awesome Mum and Dad.
Cosmic Chat usually goes on between 11:40am-11:55am. I begin prepping at least 30mins before, in the quietest room I can find (except for one beautiful day when I took the call outside). Most days, KrsnaPriya, the show’s producer, calls me and holds me on the line just before Zakia is ready for Cosmic Chat, then off we go into Aries’ tarotscope for the following day. Thereafter, I do a quick mini-reading for one random caller, and often for the winner of Waxing Lyrical as well. And that’s it—my ten minutes or so on-air. It’s one of the most peaceful times of the day for me when I ground myself, giggle with my guides, hold the space for the listeners, and just chill till I get the call. It is very much my comfort-zone, and moving out of it for even just a day made me just a tad nervous. Still, exploring life outside a comfort-zone is always a good thing. And the fact that dad could get me to the studio that day seemed too good a chance to pass up for this curious writer. Though I’ve been in TV studios before as a student, I’ve never been in a live radio studio…
We arrived just before 11am and signed in. KrsnaPriya fetched us from reception and took us to the studio. With phones on silent we walked in while Zakia introduced a song. The studio is fairly large, neat and comfortable; not at all like the cramped space I’d envisioned when writing Settle Down Now.
The main guest for the show—a guru who’d just done a laughing therapy demo—was just leaving, along with the newsreader, Prabashni. Then it was hugs and hellos all around as Zakia took my hand and just stared at me for a moment. We’d been chatting on the phone for all of South Africa to hear for months now, but had never met before. I didn’t say much. What could I say to such a legendary host? In person, Zakia is more petite than I’d pictured, and with all the energy and good humour as comes across in her show. With Zakia, what you hear is what you get! KrsnaPriya’s humour and energy is a good match with Zakia’s. Being in studio with both of them was fun!
Time seemed to fly by as I began my prep, all the while trying to take in as many details for my writer-brain as possible. Mum and Dad sat close by, watching me prepare for the first time, as did Zakia and KrsnaPriya.
We chatted in bursts when the green studio light was on. The day’s spread was interesting, with two signs mirroring each other, which doesn’t happen too often.
Pravina Maharaj, my writer friend who also works at the SABC, dropped by to say hi. Another first in person meeting for us.
I got to see how Waxing Lyrical works from the studio side. We had a winner with a beautiful voice who gave her reading to her husband.
KrsnaPriya mentioned she’d stream the tarotscopes live on Facebook, and I tried not think about being on-camera, too. I’m much more comfortable behind the lens…
Time ticked on, I donned the surprisingly comfy earphones, and then Zakia was cueing me in just like she does every time.
My nervousness disappeared and it was Cosmic Chat as usual with me going into Aries. I didn’t even give much thought to KrsnaPriya filming as I read. With relief, I thought it was all going to be a normal read, but Zakia didn’t go onto Taurus, mentioning instead that she’d always imagined I’d been reading from notes each time. I do take mental notes while I’m prepping, but don’t rely on them in the final read as it often changes and time is limited. But it does make me more coherent—mostly 😀 I couldn’t really discuss it further as the messages for Taurus needed to go. And it was back to the tarotscopes.
Just when I thought it was all going well, I got all spacey and kind of lost the plot over Virgo, ruled by Mercury who was entering his retrograde phase. A sudden refocus and it was on to Libra. All went well again until Sagittarius. Trickster Mercury struck again. I didn’t notice I said Sagittarius again, even though I was reading Capricorn’s card, and the error continued through to Aquarius and Pisces! It had never happened before, and I didn’t even notice until I got home that evening! Ah well, my guides said, maybe those signs were sharing some energies, especially Capricorn and Aquarius…
With the tarotscopes over, Zakia asked me about the cards I was using, and then we took the random caller. Once the mini-read was done, we went to the waxing lyrical winner’s read, and then it was all over. I’d survived my first in-studio live broadcast! I’ve even been invited back. We’ll have to see. There’s both my comfort-zone and the transport to think about. Though I must admit, it does make a nice change…:-D
My greatest thanks to Zakia and KrsnaPriya, and to mum and dad, too!
Watch the live stream on Facebook here.
Listen to Cosmic Chat on Lifestyle&Style on Lotus FM every weekday between 10am to midday, GMT+2.
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