Inspired by her humble upbringing, famous local radio host Shammi Lochan has had to overcome many obstacles along the way to be where she is today. Starting out as a radio announcer at the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, Shammi now holds the fort as manager Radio FBC. She is also the host of Aaina, a famous talk show program that is featured on FBC. She took time out of her busy schedule to share more about her life and aspirations.
Full name: Shammi Lochan-Lal
Age: I believe its just a number
Lives in: Laucala Beach Estate, Nasinu
Favourite food: Prawns and dalo bhaji
Favourite drink: Freshly squeezed orange, carrot or guava juice.
Favourite book: Pilgrims Progress
Favourite movies: Gandhi played by Ben Kingsley and recently, Dangal by Amir Khan.
Favourite quote: Forgive others as quickly as you expect God to forgive you and don’t harbour resentment.
Mentor since childhood: I had many great legends in radio who mentored me and continue to be my inspiration. My mum and my family are great mentors as well. I learnt a lot from them.
Person you would love to meet: If I could I would have loved to meet Princes Diana and hear her story, unfortunately not possible.
Advice to young children: Listen to wise advice and honour your parents.
Describe yourself: I take responsibility for my actions and when things go wrong, I don’t look to outside forces to blame, rather I’m someone who looks at where I can improve upon the next time around. Pointing fingers solves nothing.
What inspires you to be the person
that you are?
Because of financial constraints and lack of education my parents couldn’t have that big or white collar job but with whatever little they had they educated their children and wanted to see them very successful.
My parents’ support and to make us dream big was a great inspiration for me to be where I am today.
What would you describe as your
passion in life and how are you
going about realising it?
The best way I can suggest to find a passion that you’ve built is to think about what really excites you. Forget about business, just think about what in life makes you live in the moment and ignore everything else. For me, it’s evangelising and living an awesome life.
What would you consider to be
the most memorable in your career?
It was my first outdoor community broadcast in the North with FBC and I was new to radio. But the multitude gathered to see me broadcast live for three days … it was awesome. The crowd wouldn’t move while I was live on air and as soon as I would take my break they would disperse.
I recall a colleague from our radio team trying to locate me in the busy lunch hour in town during my break so I could come back to continue the show. I realised the power of radio! FBC had three radio stations then.
We now have six radio stations and FBC TV and radio is still very close to my heart and my passion.
I am obsessed with … cleanliness.
I can’t live without … family, internet and coffee.
I am proud of … my children.
Wish I could … eliminate every manmade weapon and war. I would like to make sure that everyone treats each other equally.
Really need to … get disciplined to wake up very early like 5am.
I can’t handle … careless attitudes and procrastination.
I look back and … think of the time I could have spent with my daughters when they were growing up. I was too busy with work.
I relax by … spending time over the weekend with family outing.
I am excited about … our six radio stations at FBC and our exciting branding which is drawing huge attention.
I have always wanted … to visit Kashmir and Switzerland and I am going to.
Biggest weakness … I trust people easily.
List of favourite things … great coffee place, buying shoes and red roses (real roses).
Opinion on the state of the world … man has become his biggest enemy and is doing everything to ruin the state of the earth by polluting it to the fullest with chemicals and debris.
Mother always told me … let nothing be an obstacle in achieving your goals.
My attitude to exercise … earth healthy and in right proportion, enjoy whatever form of exercise you like but do workout and drink plenty water.
My relationship with my body … I always want to look fit and healthy.