Malavika Varadan is a radio presenter on the Breakfast show on City 1016, a Bollywood station in Dubai. With over 12.5 million views on her candid TEDx talk, this social media influencer and fitness aficionado gives us insights on her idea worth sharing. Excerpts from an interview
How did you come up with the idea for your TEDx talk?
I knew my TEDx had to be about a subject that I was an expert at and something people were genuinely interested in. Having a conversation is a skill that everyone needs to have. It doesn’t matter if you are an academic, a banker or a rock star. If you want to impact others, if you want to learn, you must know how to converse.
Being an RJ, how has it helped you master the craft?
On a four-hour show, radio presenters talk to at least six-eight new people every day — that is a bare minimum. Often in less than 90 seconds, we have to make an personal, engaging conversation with a caller that makes them feel comfortable and simultaneously entertain the passive listening audience. Now multiply that into five shows a week for over a decade and that’s a lot of conversation. I think that makes any radio presenter an expert at making conversations.
Why do people hesitate to speak to a stranger?
It’s because you are afraid of how they will react to you and the things you say. All of us have this fear of being judged, and as the years go by we seem to be quicker to pass judgement. Instead of saying anything, we just swallow that feeling and go on with our days.
A conversation is going downhill, how do we deal with it?
The key is to steer away from dead ends. If I know that you will say no to something and I bring it up, that’s a dead end. If I can start with what we do agree with and keep that conversation going, we will be able to address what we don’t have in common with the vocabulary of what we do have in common.
Do you recall the most interesting conversation that you have had?
It was a Friday morning in Dubai, we got chatting and the taxi driver reached into his dashboard and carefully retrieved his paper cut out, the story of a taxi driver who had returned 100,000 dirhams (almost ₹ 18 lakh) to the police. I was intrigued. I wanted to know who the passenger was, what reward he got and how he found the cash — but most importantly, I wanted to know why. What prompted this Pakistani expat who lived over a decade away from his family to return what was at least 20 times his monthly salary and that conversation was one of the most memorable one I have ever had.
Is there anything else you’d like the readers to know?
I used to write for The Hindu many years ago. Thirteen years later, it’s incredible to be interviewed by the same paper.
Watch her TEDx talk on YouTube – How to Start a Conversation with Anyone.
