When J L Baird invented the world's first television he would never have imagined the effects it would have on the lives of people after almost a century... it is commonly accused of making couch potatoes out of normal individuals......the accusation is not entirely untrue though.....but before that i would like to go back to the sepia-toned days of TV programming in India....
There used to be a time during my childhood days when my mom would ration the amount of TV we could watch in a day...those were the late 80s...colour television had arrived in India only a few years back in 1982....there was not much programming in terms of entertainment for the normal viewer..there used to be Regular Samachar in the evening....the joys of TV was not in the programming itself but in bringing the entire family together for the limited sops on offer....ours was a joint family...all the ladies would finish the tasks early in the evening so that the entire set of 20 people children included would be on time for watching their favorite serials....we children would have to complete our routine homework from tuition teacher and only then could watch the TV....on wednesdays there was Chitrahaar to die for.....some of my aunts who were in college usually would not wake up early on sundays...but then the pull of Rangoli was too much to be ignored....there was the Ramayana on Sunday mornings which would bring the entire nation to a standstill for the one hour when it was telecast....Ramayan made Arun Govil and Deepika virtually Gods in this spiritually inclined country... i still remember my daadi calling upon us kids to pay obeisance to Arun govil everytime he appeared on screen....or the virtual stampede that he caused when he came visiting in Bhubaneswar.....wow those days!! it was just 20 years back but seems such a long time ago....
There were few of the things from those times that will remain etched in our memories for long times to come...who can forget the signature tune of Doordarshan every half an hour....this one also finds a mention in the recently released hit movie ZNMD.....or the rendition of 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhara' by various artists in different languages.... i still love the music, the tone, the scenes on display in this song....WOW!!
Gradually Ramayana gave way to Mahabharata....DD1 had to share space in the metros with DD2 (metro)...some of our favorite serials appeared on Metro.....Zee TV also arrived and we had the hugely Popular' Hum Paanch ' series....... 'Dekh Bhai Dekh' which brought Shekhar Suman into limelight.....
More and more channels got introduced and different genres of TV programming came into the country....
Children had there cartoon series in Duck Tales, tom and jerry etc....
MTV and channel V became the voice of the youth interests ...24 hour news channels abounded in the 1st decade of 21st century....cable Tv and satellite channels came onto their own....the TV industry has truly exploded over the last 2 decades...the consumer has so many choices.....he is just glued to TV....and in the process has become a couch potato.....
i myself have to admit the same...the period during the exams were such that you would consider yourself lucky if you caught a glimpse of the TV....but once the exams were out of the way....entire days were spent in front of the TV...such was the addiction...this applies to adults equally.....
While i can remember the few but light programming from the earlier days...it's difficult to remember one from the latter days...choices have multiplied but our memories have become shorter..
Doordarshan is totally forgotten in cities....but the memories of those earlier days still lingers on...is that a bigger addiction than TV itself? i wish so....with nostalgia...
There used to be a time during my childhood days when my mom would ration the amount of TV we could watch in a day...those were the late 80s...colour television had arrived in India only a few years back in 1982....there was not much programming in terms of entertainment for the normal viewer..there used to be Regular Samachar in the evening....the joys of TV was not in the programming itself but in bringing the entire family together for the limited sops on offer....ours was a joint family...all the ladies would finish the tasks early in the evening so that the entire set of 20 people children included would be on time for watching their favorite serials....we children would have to complete our routine homework from tuition teacher and only then could watch the TV....on wednesdays there was Chitrahaar to die for.....some of my aunts who were in college usually would not wake up early on sundays...but then the pull of Rangoli was too much to be ignored....there was the Ramayana on Sunday mornings which would bring the entire nation to a standstill for the one hour when it was telecast....Ramayan made Arun Govil and Deepika virtually Gods in this spiritually inclined country... i still remember my daadi calling upon us kids to pay obeisance to Arun govil everytime he appeared on screen....or the virtual stampede that he caused when he came visiting in Bhubaneswar.....wow those days!! it was just 20 years back but seems such a long time ago....
There were few of the things from those times that will remain etched in our memories for long times to come...who can forget the signature tune of Doordarshan every half an hour....this one also finds a mention in the recently released hit movie ZNMD.....or the rendition of 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhara' by various artists in different languages.... i still love the music, the tone, the scenes on display in this song....WOW!!
Gradually Ramayana gave way to Mahabharata....DD1 had to share space in the metros with DD2 (metro)...some of our favorite serials appeared on Metro.....Zee TV also arrived and we had the hugely Popular' Hum Paanch ' series....... 'Dekh Bhai Dekh' which brought Shekhar Suman into limelight.....
More and more channels got introduced and different genres of TV programming came into the country....
Children had there cartoon series in Duck Tales, tom and jerry etc....
MTV and channel V became the voice of the youth interests ...24 hour news channels abounded in the 1st decade of 21st century....cable Tv and satellite channels came onto their own....the TV industry has truly exploded over the last 2 decades...the consumer has so many choices.....he is just glued to TV....and in the process has become a couch potato.....
i myself have to admit the same...the period during the exams were such that you would consider yourself lucky if you caught a glimpse of the TV....but once the exams were out of the way....entire days were spent in front of the TV...such was the addiction...this applies to adults equally.....
While i can remember the few but light programming from the earlier days...it's difficult to remember one from the latter days...choices have multiplied but our memories have become shorter..
Doordarshan is totally forgotten in cities....but the memories of those earlier days still lingers on...is that a bigger addiction than TV itself? i wish so....with nostalgia...
