Lifting the cloche

It was observed that topics pertaining to love, sex and relationships were scarcely talked about in the past. Now, things have changed. People may not be “too liberal” about it, but are realizing the necessity to talk about it.

In order to invite conversation on the two estranged subjects in society, a radio show Beyond love Sex and Others Drugs invites conversations and facilitation for exploring the issues and points of view around Love, Sex, Relationships, Drugs, Addictions and an exploration of what is really possible beyond? What really makes people have the need for love, sex, abusive relationships or drugs? What point of view are they functioning from? Is it really about any of these things or are there an underlying reality of defensive, aggressive, depressive, self-judgment and self-mutilation layers and behavior patterns?

The radio show is in association with Voice America and aims to empower women and the LGBTQ community around the world ahead of 50 years of stonewalls revolution. It has already made through the listings in the Harper's Bazaar, world's oldest magazine that celebrates the best in luxury, design, entertainment and style.

Kass Thomas and Mohnish Malhotra are hosting the radio show. Mohnish has battled with intense drug abuse for 8 years and made a choice to empower himself out of it. Following his freedom from drug abuse, he now conducts training sessions to empower others to discover themselves and find out what else is possible. Kass Thomas is a multi-lingual, culturally inclusive life coach who aims to help the masses reach beyond, and discover their best selves.

"I am so excited about the opportunity to share with people some really practical and easy ways to have more ease in life. Both through sharing our life experiences and how we have made bold choices and sometimes stupid choices but either way continuously move forward, no matter", says Kass .

Mohnish then narrates the experience, "Since I was a kid I have always had a variety of people in my life, wealthy people, poor people, homosexual, bisexual, heterosexuals, transvestites, and transsexuals.

In my neighborhood growing up, there were many drug addicts and I ask myself often, what can I expect to learn?"

It seemed audacious to choose radio as a medium but it is not the first time being done in these years.

Many B-Town biggies like Kareena Kapoor and Karan Johar have already started their radio shows “What Women Want”, which revolves around inviting celebrities and talking on women's issues and women side of things.  Calling Karan, a radio show where the B-Town favorite turned love guru and a relationship expert. On being asked on why the medium of radio was selected as a medium of broadcast, Mohnish responds, “Radio is sort of home for me. I enjoy talking to and with others and sharing my thoughts and awareness on different topics. I am happy that people are able to listen even later to the episodes. So I am excited to see what this might create. It feels like home.”

There were challenges in coming up with the show. Kass details, “One of the challenges was recording our intro to the show. I couldn't seem to find the time to record the 30-second promo to the show. In fact the first episode had this strange echo in the promotional and intro. I am fixing it.”

As discussed above, the topics of love and sex despite “liberation” are taboo even today. Expressing the current scenario on these subjects in society, both say, “We get that the topic of love and sex are explored quite a bit. It does seem that people look at these topics from a place of good or bad.” The two then ask, “What if it were not about good or bad but instead of no judgment and whatever is possible beyond what we have considered possible up until now? Is it changing? Not really, but I get it will with the help of our show.”

Kass believes that RJs do not take into consideration how important India is in the world. She points out, “Everyone knows India, or at least they think they do. So how could that awareness inspire the shows and hosts to be the greatest invitation for others to tune in and learn more about the various styles of India?”

They both see radio as a sense of freedom and the desire to make choices based on what will allow them to have that freedom and ease and joy in their lives adding, “It is one of the great tools of access consciousness that has been such a gift to me is to choose in every ten seconds. You may choose the same thing for years, but if you keep choosing it every ten seconds it doesn’t become an addiction, it becomes a continuous choice and that means you can stop it at any time.

When asked about how important is it for an RJ to have their own style, they both respond, “Hugely. In fact, what we are inviting people to on this show is to find their own style and be comfortable with that. Each of us has our unique brand of magic. There is no need to duplicate anyone else, that job is already taken. It's important to enjoy yourself, and enjoy having fun.

I am good at having fun and exploring conversations from different angles with different people. Each of us get inspired and tickled in a different way by different topics.”

On concluding note, Mohnish concludes the conversation by advising RJs, “I would say don’t talk at your audience, engage and talk with them.”