Pallavi shines as a Radio Star

It’s a proud moment for the Indian Community. Pallavi Sinha has become the first Australian woman of Indian origin (to our knowledge) to fill in a prime time spot when she hosted the Evenings program on 702 ABC Sydney, 666 ABC Canberra & ABC NSW Radio.

Pallavi has been shining in the media on TV, radio & newspapers including ABC TV Q & A. The Q & A show that she was on the Panel for was rated as the number one milestone show for 2014. Viewers saw her many talents as she debated about the Government policy with Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne MP, stayed calm during student protests & passionately spoke about Australian values, diversity, domestic violence etc.She has a cameo role coming up in the film “UnIndian” starring Brett Lee.

She is passionate about presenting and social justice. Pallavi has also hosted community radio & TV. She has been the MC for events such as the India-Australia Fair at Sydney Olympic Park which was attended by around 20,000 people. She has also spoken at Conferences such as “Inspiring Change” at Parramatta and at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Pallavi has also been writing for over 14 years. Her articles have been published by the Sydney Morning Herald, SBS & community newspapers on topics such as Government policy, family violence, social justice and Australia-India relations. One of her articles published by SBS was shared or recommended by over 2100 people. In 2015, she was presented awards for Excellence in Journalism and Excellence in Law.

Destined to do great things for the community, Pallavi was educated at Sydney University. She completed Economics (Social Sciences) and Law degrees with (honours). Pallavi juggles her passion for radio, TV & writing with managing her own legal practice and lecturing at the College of Law. She generally works in the areas of immigration law and family law, and has represented asylum seekers and women who have experienced domestic or family violence.

Our correspondent caught up with Pallavi in between some of her meetings and interviewed her. Excerpts :

What was the experience on ABC radio like?

I worked with a really great team at ABC. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. In fact, I liked it so much that it didn’t feel like ‘work’. The Evenings program that I hosted has a great variety – from hosting Norman the Quiz, to chatting with talkback callers, to keeping listeners up-to-date with news, traffic & current events such as Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu & surrounding areas, and conducting interviews on a range of topics.

What were the highlights?

There were so many – it’s hard to pick ‘one’. I loved chatting to the callers – the spontaneity of talkback radio is a lot of fun. One caller I spoke to lived by the beach and our conversation went into the dolphins that swam at the beach and painted a beautiful picture. A few callers started singing on live air. It was nice that they felt comfortable in talking to me & started calling me ‘Pal’.

I spoke to people on a range of entertaining and serious issues. For example, I interviewed 4x Award winner singer Katie Noonan & former Australian Idol Damien Leith and we heard live music from them. I also interviewed a Senior Week Ambassador and spoke about mental health issues with the CEO of Beyond Blue. The interview I conducted with Tara Moss on domestic & family violence was very popular and tweeted a lot. Fusion food, online dating and body image were also topics that listeners told me they liked.

It was wonderful to cross to Vanuatu to speak to someone on the ground to get a ‘live’ update on the situation there and in surrounding areas. We were also able to convey ways in which people could help if they wanted to through the ABC website.
Hosting the ABC radio program was a great opportunity to inform, entertain and provide useful resources and information to listeners.

You also do a lot for the community – you’re an award winner for community services, a former People of Australia Ambassador, Lifeline Counsellor & the only person elected from NSW to the Executive of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council Australia as Women’s Committee Advisory Chair. How do you balance so many things?

I enjoy what I do so it doesn’t feel like work. Multi-tasking is a key – trying to do things efficiently and simultaneously if possible. Sometimes I don’t get a lot of sleep, but I always try & catch up afterwards. Regular exercise and healthy eating is also important when you’re juggling a lot of things.

What are your future plans?

There are exciting projects in the pipeline – I’ll keep you posted at the appropriate time.

We wish Pallavi the best of luck with her endeavours and look forward to seeing her rise higher and higher.
Pallavi Sinha is a Lawyer, Adjunct Lecturer at College of Law, Radio & TV Presenter & Writer. Her website is www.pallavisinha.com and her twitter id is mspallavisinha.