six years ago life struck me so hard
that I was making and selling samosas
from a small stall in Gurgaon my name is
Jonathan Philemon Nathan Brady and I’m
known as chiropody Nathan on radio and
I’ve been a radio jockey for more than
17 years now and I’m here to tell you my
story the story of the time when I hit
rock bottom six years ago it had been 11
years since I first went on air as a
radio jockey and you know everything was
fine I had a new car I had a swanky new
apartment I had a lot of friends life
was good I was very happy the contract
with the review station that I was on
was about to end and you know I knew
that once his contract ends once I’m out
of the door
they’d be like a million people who want
me to work for the radio station and I’d
been you know a famous personality on
radio which is a rocky know is this
going to be a piece of cake but as I say
that confidence is good in life but our
confidence is not good I started sending
feelers through my friends through my
colleagues my ex colleagues my relatives
to different radio stations telling them
that you know that I’m ready for a
change that yes I am willing to work for
you I am willing to come and join your
organization but every person that I
spoke with every company that I spoke
with the only thing that they gave me in
return was silence I should have
actually understood that this silence
was the calm before the storm you know
my contract got over I didn’t get a job
two months later I was finding it hard
to pay my home instalments I didn’t get
a job my friends I spoke with them asked
them to get me a job I didn’t get a job
four months down I’d finished my entire
savings I’d finish my parents savings I
didn’t get a job I’d hit rock bottom of
my career graph at
t-1 years of age I was getting into what
would become the biggest crisis of my
life
you know I remember it was one of these
evenings that my mom died my brother and
I was sitting and you know because I
didn’t have a job I was almost home all
the time and we were sitting and having
tea and my dad asked me he said you know
we do understand what you’re going
through but what do you want to do okay
I don’t care and my prompt answer was
radio so they told me they said you know
that is correct you wanted radio but the
fact is you don’t have you don’t have
any offers right now what are you gonna
do what else do you want to do so my mom
said what fascinates you I said food he
said yeah but eating food is not going
to get us money right there’s no there’s
not gonna be a job eating food I said no
that’s not me that’s not what I mean I
mean I can cook food you see if I was in
a radio jockey I would have probably
been a great chef because I love cooking
so they said okay then well if that is
it then why don’t you get into it but
you know the financial condition of the
entire house was such that I couldn’t
have started like a restaurant my own
right so we didn’t know what to do and
again we just kept thinking and then I
told them I said you know what why don’t
I start small because we don’t have
those resources right now so I took up a
small stall and you know in Hindi you
call it coca that’s how small it was and
I started making and selling samosas
from there I strongly believe this that
till you don’t bruise your knees you
don’t realize the importance of the
ointment which is kept in the closet and
that pointment in life is your family
all my so-called friends who are friends
with me would often call me for their
parties Archie could have I didn’t
that’s my friend pose with me they’re
all disappeared they were all gone the
only people who stood by me at that time
were my family and I’ll come to it why
I’m getting to get into this point so my
younger brother joined me and he said
you know I’m going to support in
whatever you’re doing
he left whatever he was doing was a
dancer model and he said I’m going to
stand with you so both of us started
working in that small stall and started
selling samosas you know there were
times that people who come into the
stall and a few fans would recognize me
so they’d look at me
and they asked me like what are you
doing this and they always had pity in
their eyes but that pity never made me
be little myself
it never shattered me because that pity
was the fuel for my struggle I knew that
had to come off from here the only
direction I wanted to go from there
was up you know when you’re rock-bottom
the only direction you’re going is up
and I just wanted to change the way they
looked at me I didn’t like the pity in
their eyes you know as luck would have
it who attend I carried people say that
if there’s a Hindi saying that Bhagwan
zabaleta the Shepherd of Arcadia that so
when when troubles come to you also this
much about market troubles are there so
this entire samosa stall that we started
even that wasn’t doing well we were
sending some more sell so five rupees of
piece right there was another guy who
came into that market and started
selling it for three degrees so we lost
all our customers we didn’t know what to
do I was in the pits down to my knees
and frankly speaking I’m I’m not very
proud of saying this but I was beginning
to accept it as the inevitable this is
what was destined I’m going to be down
in the pits everything’s over now but
during this period what had happened was
a magical thing that happened was I had
begun an inward journey a journey within
myself you know there were times when I
would spend hours by myself meditating
or just with myself and I realized that
if I ever got back on radio if I ever
want a job again it’s not going to be
the same and what it would be I’m gonna
tell you so after six months of being
jobless I finally got a call from a
radio station and they said that you
know we’ve got an offer for you why
don’t you come and join us now any sane
person who’s been jobless for six months
who’s exhausted his own savings
exhausted his parents aims what we do
he’d jump onto the offer right you know
what my answer was my answer was I will
come and join you if we let me do my
kind of radio this person must have
thought this guy’s lost it but he still
was decent enough he said what do you
mean by your kind of radio I said I want
to do CSR on radio he said CSR corporate
social responsibility are you crazy
that’s gonna be so boring but I told him
I said
know what this is my personal belief
that deep down inside everyone has a
good soul right
we just need to tap into it isn’t to
connect with it and good deeds helping
people you know it’s fun because it
brings a smile to your face so I said I
wanted to see SRM they’ve read so they
agreed and I started doing on radio what
had never been done before I started
doing corporate social responsibility
the idea was that I thought radio is
such a large medium such a big medium
that if you utilize it well you can help
others the first initiative that we took
up was there was this guy actually this
girl called me up on my show and she
said that you know my brother is
languishing in Tihar jail because I
didn’t have money to submit for my
school fee she was in a government
school and she said so what he did was
he was walking along the railway tracks
and he picked up a piece of mine from
there and he probably would have thrown
it back but he does hurt me though he
was a tailor so he picked it up in the
moment he picked it up the real you
police caught him and you know who they
put charges of stealing on him and they
they filed a case against him he got a
sentence so he had served three months
of his sentence now the quantum of his
punishment has been doubling because
there was a fine attached to us to his
you know to his punishment and he
couldn’t pay that so I thought to myself
I said you know what the crime that he
committed
he’s already languished in jail for that
he deserved it because a crime is a
crime right so you need to go in and you
know suffer the punishment but the next
three months that he would have been in
jail would have been because he didn’t
have the money to pay the fine and
poverty is not a crime so I went ahead I
paid up his fine got him out but that
was not it because the fine was a pretty
fine right so I got him out
we rehabilitated him got him a job today
his sister is a graduate she’s already
married and she has a child and he’s
well settled in his life
you know this entire initiative sparked
something inside me and something inside
the radio station that I was working for
also because I realized that here is
this medium here is a podium where
people can come address people tell them
about the problems and the city I mean
the city that I live in I’m so proud of
being in delhi-ncr anything that goes
that’s what he true for I think cities
across the world also every time you
appeal to people you tell them that
someone is in distress good souls will
always come up and help so I thought you
know this should just be a start I
wanted what I wanted to do so we went
ahead and the next incident that I took
up was we got face reconstruction
surgeries done for acid attack survivors
they couldn’t afford the surgeries so we
got the surgeries done for them then a
rickshaw puller from Agra came to Delhi
and this is really this is really iconic
because you know what happens in like
someone sitting in Agra doesn’t hear my
show but when he came to Delhi he was
looking for help and someone told him
one of my fans probably that you know
there is this guy who keeps helping
people why don’t you go and approach him
so he came to the studio and he told me
that his son was a rickshaw puller his
son had a hole in his heart he had to be
operated he didn’t have the money so I
tied up with the hospital and got him a
surgery done then where there was his
farmer’s son you know who was kept Al
Kooper say our truck just went over it
and he lost one of his legs and I
thought to myself I said you know what
just because he’s a farmer’s son just
because he cannot afford it doesn’t mean
that he’s gonna be limping the rest of
his life so I got him a high-end
prosthetic and I didn’t Denny got him a
high-interest Eddy because everyone came
together the likes of Virendra Sarah you
know all the Indian cricketers came
together we got him a prosthetic which
cost twelve and a half lakhs in the
market today he jogs and he’s preparing
for a marathon today a guy who’d lost
his back completely
and of course my my favorite of course
being an initiative that wasn’t meant to
be an initiative you know many a times
on radio you get calls and sometimes you
don’t know how to handle them this was
one such call there was this gentleman
who called me up and he said he said
Nathan you know what my father was he
sounded in distress he said my father
was very unwell and he’d had a seizure
i diapered don’t go and he said that I
was taking him in an ambulance to the
hospital and they were stuck in a jam he
said it’s not that people could not give
sight if they wanted they could have
given you know sight to the ambulance
and let the ambulance pass he said the
ambulance siren kept on you know ringing
in my ears and not a soul gave us way
and he said the last I remember of my
dad is he was talking on my shirt all my
buttons broke he looked at me once in
the eye on just said bye and he was gone
forever you know I felt like someone had
slapped me on my face right on my face
because I was as much a part of the city
as everyone else was in that jam right I
might not have been there but you know
he spoke to the city that day and I
thought to myself I said we keep saying
stuff like the little valley you know
the place where people with big hearts
live and this is the attitude that we
have that we can’t give way to the
ambulance I mean this is the least we
could do I started a very simple thing
it was not even a campaign I just
started telling people every day in my
show again and again that if we hear a
siren just move to your left you know
what happens is sometimes in our
stressful lives we forget what to do
right so when you hear I’m gonna sign it
you don’t know what to do so you know
you’re like deer in the headlights
expression don’t know what to do go to
the left or the right so I just started
making it simple for everyone that if we
hear an ambulance siren just move to
your left that the ambulance is pass
away then I called up the ambulance
drivers told them also try and overtake
from the right don’t confuse people and
that started happening we started
getting calls and that I think was the
most life-changing moment in her life
because I got a call from someone who
said you know what my on got saved today
I was taking into Ames and she got saved
only because of you
because people gave me to be honest and
I felt so proud that you know here is
this medium where if you really used it
well and I believe that you know a lot
of the electronic media like television
even you say everyone is doing their bit
but I just felt that radio was not doing
it and so I thought this would be a
great start and I’m so proud that you
know other stations also started doing
it because it is not about an idea that
others cannot copy it’s not an idea that
shouldn’t be covered it’s an idea that
everyone should be copying it’s a good
deed that everyone should be doing so
that was you know up so that is what you
know what’s going on through my to my
head so the four most important things I
think that I learned in this entire
phase of mine that I went through was
one your family will be the only one
that stands by you through thick and
thin you might realize it later in life
but you will too
no matter what religion you follow no
matter who you believe in spend time
with God meditate every day because when
you connect with God you actually
connect with yourself with your own
conscience 3 never get comfortable with
what you have you know what happens is
the moment we make small goals in life
which a guard say yeah I want this house
the moment you get it you think life’s
University with everything but never do
that never get comfortable with what you
have because what do you have today you
might not have tomorrow so cherish
whatever you have but remember that it’s
temporary what is constant what remains
is your family so value them any
relationships and the most important the
last point the most important thing that
I learned from this be willing to change
I understand that to move ahead you’ll
always need to continuously change and
adapt right and you’ll have to innovate
so what I wanted to do is this is a
little bit of a different that talk I
want you to become a part of this TED
talk before I go wherever you I just
keep sitting just put your hand on your
heart and I want you to take this oath
with me just say it with me okay
put your hand on your heart please and
say it with me change is the key of life
change is always uncomfortable change is
inconvenient change is difficult and yet
change is what keeps you going if I need
to change I will change thank you ladies
and gentleman that is the story of my
life
that I was making and selling samosas
from a small stall in Gurgaon my name is
Jonathan Philemon Nathan Brady and I’m
known as chiropody Nathan on radio and
I’ve been a radio jockey for more than
17 years now and I’m here to tell you my
story the story of the time when I hit
rock bottom six years ago it had been 11
years since I first went on air as a
radio jockey and you know everything was
fine I had a new car I had a swanky new
apartment I had a lot of friends life
was good I was very happy the contract
with the review station that I was on
was about to end and you know I knew
that once his contract ends once I’m out
of the door
they’d be like a million people who want
me to work for the radio station and I’d
been you know a famous personality on
radio which is a rocky know is this
going to be a piece of cake but as I say
that confidence is good in life but our
confidence is not good I started sending
feelers through my friends through my
colleagues my ex colleagues my relatives
to different radio stations telling them
that you know that I’m ready for a
change that yes I am willing to work for
you I am willing to come and join your
organization but every person that I
spoke with every company that I spoke
with the only thing that they gave me in
return was silence I should have
actually understood that this silence
was the calm before the storm you know
my contract got over I didn’t get a job
two months later I was finding it hard
to pay my home instalments I didn’t get
a job my friends I spoke with them asked
them to get me a job I didn’t get a job
four months down I’d finished my entire
savings I’d finish my parents savings I
didn’t get a job I’d hit rock bottom of
my career graph at
t-1 years of age I was getting into what
would become the biggest crisis of my
life
you know I remember it was one of these
evenings that my mom died my brother and
I was sitting and you know because I
didn’t have a job I was almost home all
the time and we were sitting and having
tea and my dad asked me he said you know
we do understand what you’re going
through but what do you want to do okay
I don’t care and my prompt answer was
radio so they told me they said you know
that is correct you wanted radio but the
fact is you don’t have you don’t have
any offers right now what are you gonna
do what else do you want to do so my mom
said what fascinates you I said food he
said yeah but eating food is not going
to get us money right there’s no there’s
not gonna be a job eating food I said no
that’s not me that’s not what I mean I
mean I can cook food you see if I was in
a radio jockey I would have probably
been a great chef because I love cooking
so they said okay then well if that is
it then why don’t you get into it but
you know the financial condition of the
entire house was such that I couldn’t
have started like a restaurant my own
right so we didn’t know what to do and
again we just kept thinking and then I
told them I said you know what why don’t
I start small because we don’t have
those resources right now so I took up a
small stall and you know in Hindi you
call it coca that’s how small it was and
I started making and selling samosas
from there I strongly believe this that
till you don’t bruise your knees you
don’t realize the importance of the
ointment which is kept in the closet and
that pointment in life is your family
all my so-called friends who are friends
with me would often call me for their
parties Archie could have I didn’t
that’s my friend pose with me they’re
all disappeared they were all gone the
only people who stood by me at that time
were my family and I’ll come to it why
I’m getting to get into this point so my
younger brother joined me and he said
you know I’m going to support in
whatever you’re doing
he left whatever he was doing was a
dancer model and he said I’m going to
stand with you so both of us started
working in that small stall and started
selling samosas you know there were
times that people who come into the
stall and a few fans would recognize me
so they’d look at me
and they asked me like what are you
doing this and they always had pity in
their eyes but that pity never made me
be little myself
it never shattered me because that pity
was the fuel for my struggle I knew that
had to come off from here the only
direction I wanted to go from there
was up you know when you’re rock-bottom
the only direction you’re going is up
and I just wanted to change the way they
looked at me I didn’t like the pity in
their eyes you know as luck would have
it who attend I carried people say that
if there’s a Hindi saying that Bhagwan
zabaleta the Shepherd of Arcadia that so
when when troubles come to you also this
much about market troubles are there so
this entire samosa stall that we started
even that wasn’t doing well we were
sending some more sell so five rupees of
piece right there was another guy who
came into that market and started
selling it for three degrees so we lost
all our customers we didn’t know what to
do I was in the pits down to my knees
and frankly speaking I’m I’m not very
proud of saying this but I was beginning
to accept it as the inevitable this is
what was destined I’m going to be down
in the pits everything’s over now but
during this period what had happened was
a magical thing that happened was I had
begun an inward journey a journey within
myself you know there were times when I
would spend hours by myself meditating
or just with myself and I realized that
if I ever got back on radio if I ever
want a job again it’s not going to be
the same and what it would be I’m gonna
tell you so after six months of being
jobless I finally got a call from a
radio station and they said that you
know we’ve got an offer for you why
don’t you come and join us now any sane
person who’s been jobless for six months
who’s exhausted his own savings
exhausted his parents aims what we do
he’d jump onto the offer right you know
what my answer was my answer was I will
come and join you if we let me do my
kind of radio this person must have
thought this guy’s lost it but he still
was decent enough he said what do you
mean by your kind of radio I said I want
to do CSR on radio he said CSR corporate
social responsibility are you crazy
that’s gonna be so boring but I told him
I said
know what this is my personal belief
that deep down inside everyone has a
good soul right
we just need to tap into it isn’t to
connect with it and good deeds helping
people you know it’s fun because it
brings a smile to your face so I said I
wanted to see SRM they’ve read so they
agreed and I started doing on radio what
had never been done before I started
doing corporate social responsibility
the idea was that I thought radio is
such a large medium such a big medium
that if you utilize it well you can help
others the first initiative that we took
up was there was this guy actually this
girl called me up on my show and she
said that you know my brother is
languishing in Tihar jail because I
didn’t have money to submit for my
school fee she was in a government
school and she said so what he did was
he was walking along the railway tracks
and he picked up a piece of mine from
there and he probably would have thrown
it back but he does hurt me though he
was a tailor so he picked it up in the
moment he picked it up the real you
police caught him and you know who they
put charges of stealing on him and they
they filed a case against him he got a
sentence so he had served three months
of his sentence now the quantum of his
punishment has been doubling because
there was a fine attached to us to his
you know to his punishment and he
couldn’t pay that so I thought to myself
I said you know what the crime that he
committed
he’s already languished in jail for that
he deserved it because a crime is a
crime right so you need to go in and you
know suffer the punishment but the next
three months that he would have been in
jail would have been because he didn’t
have the money to pay the fine and
poverty is not a crime so I went ahead I
paid up his fine got him out but that
was not it because the fine was a pretty
fine right so I got him out
we rehabilitated him got him a job today
his sister is a graduate she’s already
married and she has a child and he’s
well settled in his life
you know this entire initiative sparked
something inside me and something inside
the radio station that I was working for
also because I realized that here is
this medium here is a podium where
people can come address people tell them
about the problems and the city I mean
the city that I live in I’m so proud of
being in delhi-ncr anything that goes
that’s what he true for I think cities
across the world also every time you
appeal to people you tell them that
someone is in distress good souls will
always come up and help so I thought you
know this should just be a start I
wanted what I wanted to do so we went
ahead and the next incident that I took
up was we got face reconstruction
surgeries done for acid attack survivors
they couldn’t afford the surgeries so we
got the surgeries done for them then a
rickshaw puller from Agra came to Delhi
and this is really this is really iconic
because you know what happens in like
someone sitting in Agra doesn’t hear my
show but when he came to Delhi he was
looking for help and someone told him
one of my fans probably that you know
there is this guy who keeps helping
people why don’t you go and approach him
so he came to the studio and he told me
that his son was a rickshaw puller his
son had a hole in his heart he had to be
operated he didn’t have the money so I
tied up with the hospital and got him a
surgery done then where there was his
farmer’s son you know who was kept Al
Kooper say our truck just went over it
and he lost one of his legs and I
thought to myself I said you know what
just because he’s a farmer’s son just
because he cannot afford it doesn’t mean
that he’s gonna be limping the rest of
his life so I got him a high-end
prosthetic and I didn’t Denny got him a
high-interest Eddy because everyone came
together the likes of Virendra Sarah you
know all the Indian cricketers came
together we got him a prosthetic which
cost twelve and a half lakhs in the
market today he jogs and he’s preparing
for a marathon today a guy who’d lost
his back completely
and of course my my favorite of course
being an initiative that wasn’t meant to
be an initiative you know many a times
on radio you get calls and sometimes you
don’t know how to handle them this was
one such call there was this gentleman
who called me up and he said he said
Nathan you know what my father was he
sounded in distress he said my father
was very unwell and he’d had a seizure
i diapered don’t go and he said that I
was taking him in an ambulance to the
hospital and they were stuck in a jam he
said it’s not that people could not give
sight if they wanted they could have
given you know sight to the ambulance
and let the ambulance pass he said the
ambulance siren kept on you know ringing
in my ears and not a soul gave us way
and he said the last I remember of my
dad is he was talking on my shirt all my
buttons broke he looked at me once in
the eye on just said bye and he was gone
forever you know I felt like someone had
slapped me on my face right on my face
because I was as much a part of the city
as everyone else was in that jam right I
might not have been there but you know
he spoke to the city that day and I
thought to myself I said we keep saying
stuff like the little valley you know
the place where people with big hearts
live and this is the attitude that we
have that we can’t give way to the
ambulance I mean this is the least we
could do I started a very simple thing
it was not even a campaign I just
started telling people every day in my
show again and again that if we hear a
siren just move to your left you know
what happens is sometimes in our
stressful lives we forget what to do
right so when you hear I’m gonna sign it
you don’t know what to do so you know
you’re like deer in the headlights
expression don’t know what to do go to
the left or the right so I just started
making it simple for everyone that if we
hear an ambulance siren just move to
your left that the ambulance is pass
away then I called up the ambulance
drivers told them also try and overtake
from the right don’t confuse people and
that started happening we started
getting calls and that I think was the
most life-changing moment in her life
because I got a call from someone who
said you know what my on got saved today
I was taking into Ames and she got saved
only because of you
because people gave me to be honest and
I felt so proud that you know here is
this medium where if you really used it
well and I believe that you know a lot
of the electronic media like television
even you say everyone is doing their bit
but I just felt that radio was not doing
it and so I thought this would be a
great start and I’m so proud that you
know other stations also started doing
it because it is not about an idea that
others cannot copy it’s not an idea that
shouldn’t be covered it’s an idea that
everyone should be copying it’s a good
deed that everyone should be doing so
that was you know up so that is what you
know what’s going on through my to my
head so the four most important things I
think that I learned in this entire
phase of mine that I went through was
one your family will be the only one
that stands by you through thick and
thin you might realize it later in life
but you will too
no matter what religion you follow no
matter who you believe in spend time
with God meditate every day because when
you connect with God you actually
connect with yourself with your own
conscience 3 never get comfortable with
what you have you know what happens is
the moment we make small goals in life
which a guard say yeah I want this house
the moment you get it you think life’s
University with everything but never do
that never get comfortable with what you
have because what do you have today you
might not have tomorrow so cherish
whatever you have but remember that it’s
temporary what is constant what remains
is your family so value them any
relationships and the most important the
last point the most important thing that
I learned from this be willing to change
I understand that to move ahead you’ll
always need to continuously change and
adapt right and you’ll have to innovate
so what I wanted to do is this is a
little bit of a different that talk I
want you to become a part of this TED
talk before I go wherever you I just
keep sitting just put your hand on your
heart and I want you to take this oath
with me just say it with me okay
put your hand on your heart please and
say it with me change is the key of life
change is always uncomfortable change is
inconvenient change is difficult and yet
change is what keeps you going if I need
to change I will change thank you ladies
and gentleman that is the story of my
life
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