Behind Famous Men...BFM

More than a year or so, people of Klang Valley have been enjoying themselves listening BFM (89.9FM) on their  car radio while they soldier the traffic jam to work and back. It caters for the 40 somethings, intellectuals, elite, burjuous, expatriates as well as anyone who savour something different the usual fare churned out by most stations to appease  the ever fickle minded teens and young adults. By the way, BFM means Business FM. It does not only talk about business alone. Incidentally, they have the ingenious way to come up with many cute meanings of their acronym BFM. One of it is Business, Football and Music - as they also cover BPL, World Cup fixtures and their music is mostly classic rock. Most of their songs are from the 70s and 80s, rarely heard in our shores, e.g. Led Zeppelin, The Who, George Harrison (post Beatles era), Bob Seagal and the silver bullet band, Kinks, Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, Deep Purple, CCR, Kula Schaker and the list goes on. New artistes like One Republic and Pink are also featured there!

People outside the Klang Valley can hear it here-http://live.bfm.my/

Some of their cute acronyms are: Bond Frustrates Moneypenny, Bribe-Free Malaysia, Brake Faster Macha (their car bumper sticker), Break from Monotony, Barrack Foils McCain (when Obama won the US elections), Barrichello Fancies Machibatta (F1 fans should know), Bowie,Frampton,Mercury etc.

When MAS was promoting their tickets, again listeners were invited to call in to promote MAS via the same acronym. Out came slogans like Better Fly MAS and Bawa Famili Melancung! If you are observant, you would have noticed the title of this blog is also their creation. And we all know the age old saying, behind every famous man there is always a woman. We also know that many men in the history of mankind have fallen because of their unchecked boiling hormones.

Behind most famous men there would be a subservient, sympathetic and understanding wife who would take in all their idiosyncrasies. Behind MK Gandhi was Kasturba who was willing to live a simpleton life in an ashram and wash the latrine because her husband believed in it. And she she had to endure the frequent uncertainty when her husband was jailed. And when she lost a child due to her husband's belief in traditional medicine. And the tantric experiments... And she stood his ground. So did Pushaneela when her husband was imprisoned under the ISA for 17 months. She not only took care of the family in his absence but ran his law office and constituency!

History is rife on the converse, downfall of men due to women. The famous example comes from the British Empire. In 1936, Prince Edward had to abdicate the throne to many the woman he loved. The woman,  Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Spencer, then Simpson, an American socialite, a 2-time divorcee with limitless ambitions was deemed unsuitable for the British monarchy. Another Edward, the US presidential candidate, John Edwards had to withdraw from the race when his affair was exposed. And if only Julius Caesar had listened to his 3rd wife (Calpunia) who had a dream on his impending murder, then the event on Ides of March and the famous Et tu, Brute would not have been said. His association with the Egyptian vixen probably was the turning point leading to his downfall.

One man who almost fall into dispute due to his wanderings with Monica Lewinsky but came out unscathed but not smelling of roses is Bill Clinton. 

What about Behind Famous Madames? Men are always there to bring her down just to prove that man is superior. In the case of Indira Gandhi, there was a Sikh sympathiser just waiting to gun  her down! Margaret Thatcher, The Iron Lady, managed  to escape and complete her term.

P.S. Listeners do not mind the business talk as it more than made up by its interesting diaspora of programmes, e.g.Breakfast Grille where CEOs get grilled by intelligent hosts (something like Hardtalk on BBC), The Bigger Picture where family, health, unity and others issues are discussed.