Meet one of CBC's most dedicated callers — and find out what keeps him dialing in

Judy Aldous has spent over 20 years as a journalist with CBC Radio and is host of Alberta@Noon, a provincewide, open-line show where listeners share their perspectives with experts and newsmakers of the day.  

I remember the first time I met Prakash Mullick on the radio. It was early days on Alberta@Noon for me, but Prakash was already legendary. 

We were talking about politics or economics or something weighty on the program ("I don't do barbecuing or gardening," I'd later learn from him.)

His name popped up on the computer screen as calls came in to the show.

"You want Prakash?" the call screener asked. "I know he's been on recently but he's pretty good today. Got a good point."

So, yes, I did want Prakash that day. And many others since.

Because Prakash (we are all on a first-name basis with him) is a rare breed. He's a "regular," as we say in the business, but unlike some others, we don't have to worry about him. He won't say anything that makes you wish for a seven-second delay. He'll stay on topic. He knows what he's talking about. He's not partisan but he knows his politics.

One of Prakash's endearing qualities is he always uses your name when he's talking to you.

I think of him as the wise sage of open line.

"There was a familiarity to the way he talked to me on the air that was endearing. I always felt like we were sitting around the kitchen table, not on national radio," said Duncan McCue, who hosted the national open-line show Cross Country Checkup until 2020.

He said Prakash called in to the first show he hosted.

"There's a tendency on national radio shows to have silos of regional voices. Prakash didn't fit into a silo. He was an elderly man, an engineer … a visible minority and from Alberta."

Prakash isn't sure when he first picked up the phone to call the toll-free number, but he figures it was the 1990s. 

He was in Fort McMurray at the time, some 20 years after first arriving in Toronto from India on a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship for post-graduate studies in engineering. 

He'd got a taste for social justice after lobbying the Fort McMurray Housing Authority to create a policy around sexual harassment. He was a director with the housing authority at the time and tired of seeing the receptionist be treated "like an object."

"I said, 'I'll write a policy' and, Judy, this was a long time before #MeToo," he said. "That receptionist needed a job and she should not be subjected to sexist comments."

That was just one of his volunteer jobs; he was involved in 13 at the time. 

He has championed tobacco reduction, recycling and indoor air quality. His favourite volunteer gig? Helping seniors file their income-tax returns.

Prakash has since retired from a long career with Suncor and moved to Edmonton, but he continues to volunteer with seniors. And rattle for change.

"Anywhere I feel people are being unfairly treated," he told me this past summer.

"So, for example, AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) is being de-indexed and I wonder, what about the mother of three ... and then there's the economic recovery plan."

You need time if you're going to talk to Prakash. He's always got a thing or two on his mind. 

So when he's done volunteering and writing letters to his MLA and MP — as well as the mayors of Montreal and Edmonton, Edmonton's police chief, professors at the Calgary and Lethbridge universities — he calls open-line shows. 

For every time he makes it past the call screener and onto the radio, there are 10 times he sits on hold. 

"I know I don't always get on. I don't take that as an affront."

In an era of extremes, 82-year-old Prakash Mullick is refreshingly reasonable. 

Though watch out, Service Alberta Minister Nate Glubish. Prakash does not think seniors over 75 should have to pay for a medical before getting their driver's licence renewed.

"Judy, it is just so unfair for seniors who are struggling to make ends meet...."