In favour of the 'desi' accent

In an extraordinary reversal of tradition, South Asian radio presenters are being told that 'desi' accents are the flavour of the month at broadcasting studios in London.

The oh-so-British accent so beautifully mimed by Audrey Hepburn in films like My Fair Lady is now as irrelevant as the dinosaurs that used to roam the face of the earth.

By all accounts it will be Lahori, Mumbai and Bangalore accents that will set the trends and standards for how the English language is spoken.

At least that is the conclusion of a London-based British-Pakistani broadcaster who has been sacked from her job for sounding too posh. The clipped accent of Zenab so grated on her BBC employers that they dismissed her because she sounded far too white and middle class on the airwaves.

Changing the norms means that any number of BBC English accents will from now on have to co-exist in a broadcasters' Tower of Babel. Zenab, a single mother of mixed English and Pakistani parentage, says she was contacted by her boss at the BBC World Service who told her, "Zenab, the sound of the World Service is changing and you are not going to be part of it. We won't be using you any more as an announcer." When asked why she was being sacked, she was told, "Your voice is too clipped."