Shobha Berry - Broadcaster

Born in the major cultural center of Allahabad in U.P. India, Shobha received music as an inheritance from her mother who was a music teacher. She not only made little Shobha learn music, but also classical Indian dances—Katthak and Bharat Natyam. Shobha received the “Sangeet Prabhakar” degree from Prayag Music School at a young age, graduating at the third position in the State. She presented classical music programs and Katthak and Bharat Natyam dances on stage as a teenager.

Shobha soon joined the “Children’s Program” on All India Radio - Allahabad, as a child singer, for which articles were published in Amrit Bazaar Patrika.  However, her role as Alice in the radio play adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland” changed the direction of her career. Instead of child singer, Shobha became the leading drama voice of the “Children’s Program”, and later joined AIR as a drama artist. As she grew up, Shobha moved from the Children’s Program to Women’s Program, and also became the regular host of the “Listening Post.” She continued to work at AIR while earning her Master’s in English Literature from Allahabad University.

Her engagement to an Indian immigrant in the U.S. brought Shobha to Washington, D.C. in 1966 and brought her passion to “talk to the Indian listeners” with her, starting part time at VOA Hindi and finally joining the Hindi Service full-time in 1989.  Shobha has won dozens of “Excellence in Programming” awards at VOA, and has won the Special Achievement Award twice.  When VOA Hindi started its own “Listening Post” program in 1970, Shobha was the obvious choice to be its co-host and continues in this role today.

Shobha’s hobbies include sewing, design and cooking. On her days off, Shobha “is always in the kitchen”, preparing a variety of dishes...for that day, and for the next, and the next.  And if she is not in the kitchen, you can find her in front of the TV, watching a Hindi movie or a soap opera. “This keeps me in touch with India”, she says, “where my listeners are!”