Question 658

Today's question by Saurabh Kulkarni and(?!) Tejas Gokhale.

While laying a railroad through Koderma in 1890s, the British first discovered vast mica deposits in this region. Mining activities started soon after and many mining houses were established. Prosperous businessmen built huge mansions here. Till late 1960s, Mercedes and Porsch cars, and thoroughbreds from Arabia used to be common here. The town once boasted of most number of phone connections and phone calls made in India.

The name is made of two words:
1. Village in Jharkhand
2. Hindi-Bhojpuri word for pond
However, this place became famous all across India due to another reason. Explain all you can.


Answer: Jhumri Talaiya, which was originally a sleepy mining town, which became famous in India due to its connection with Vividh Bharati, a nationally broadcast radio show. At a time when numerous television channels and FM radio stations were yet to come to India, the Vividh Bharati radio shows were a national phenomenon. A large number of song requests on the Vividh Bharati programmes would come from Jhumri Talaiya. Young listeners from this town would compete among themselves to send out the most song requests in a day or month. One requester, Rameswar Burnwal from Jhumri Tilaiya, managed to get his name repeated on the show almost on a daily basis. Other frequent requesters were Arvind Seth, Nandlal Sinha Mrs. Radha Sinha from Nawada Basti, Ramji Prasad, Sacchidanand Prasad and Triloki Prasad from Khudra Patti. Requester Arvind Seth was even invited for an interview on the television show Aaj Tak.Vividh Bharati Radio listeners thus became familiar with the town of Jhumri Tilaiya.