UK Indian to walk backwards to save BBC Asia
An Indian origin musician has decided to walk backwards from London to Birmingham to support the campaign to save the BBC Asian Network.
Composer-musician Ranvir Singh Verma will start the 120-mile journey from BBC Centre at Portland Place in central London and finish at the Mailbox, home of the BBC Asian Network, in Birmingham, four days later. Ranvir, who is creator of the Universal Taal Project, the futuristic fusion music combining electro breakbeat, drum and bass and dance floor funkiness, will start his journey by walking backwards after joining the world’s first Bhangra flashmob in London on May 22. A coalition of music artists and supporters have organised two Bhangra flashmobs, one in London and the other in Birmingham, to save the BBC Asian Network. The digital music station broadcasts mainly in English, but has programmes in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati and Mirpuri.
BBC director-general Mark Thompson had announced in March the corporation’s decision to close down two digital radio stations, 6 Music and Asian Network, by the end of 2011. The BBC proposals were subjected to a 12-week consultation, which will end on May 25, and a final decision will be taken after that.
The BBC decision had led to an uproar in the British Asian community and Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty was among more than 100 prominent British Indians and British Pakistanis who had protested publicly at the time. Ranvir will walk backwards to Luton, and then walk through Northampton and Coventry, before reaching Birmingham on May 25.
“I came up with the idea of walking backwards after hearing about Lotan Baba, Indian’s famous ‘rolling saint’ who has rolled over 18,000 miles across India in a bid for unity and peace,” he said.
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