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To whatever extent I can go back to my childhood memories, the first thing I remember probably apart from my mommy dear is a box with a glass pane in the front, when switched on shows people doing all sorts of things I could ever imagine as a kid.
Yes, dear reader, I am talking about the Idiot Box that we all glue ourselves to, whenever we get a chance to do so. The television is perhaps one of the best things that has happened to Mankind from the mass communication's perspective.
The feeling that I am getting while writing this... is like,, yess... I always wanted to write about the TV. Nonetheless lets also look at the cons that the Idiot Box has caused to the society along with the Pros. I ll talk about all these serious matters later...
Going back to Nostalgia, I think I still remember that the first TV that I used to watch did not belong to us. It was our neighbour's black & white televison. This was in the mid 80s. The time of the sole channel available to the TV viewer - The Doordarshan.
Still remember that shehnai sound & the image of the DD logo spinning....
I think the first ever serial that I remember watching is Nukkad. It was a light hearted comic depiction of the lives of people living in chawls.
Then it was announced that the great epic Ramayana will be aired on Doordarshan. This was the cause for biggest rise in the sales of the television sets. And my dad happened to be one of the new consumer for the Televison manufacturer. The then famous brand.. The BUSH televison. It was a black/white TV though. But mind you.. owning a TV set was a luxury in those times.
I was mesmerized by the idea of being able to watch the Television set at my own house !
Come sunday.. it was the time to relish on the yummy cartoon shows. One of my favourite ones being the Spider Man, Mickey Mouse & the Tom & Jerry Show.
I liked to watch the Bow & Arrow fights in Ramayana too... though I did not quite understand why Rama went to the forest to pay for the foolishness of his father.
Times passed... the advent & the popularity of the color TV sets came about. Owning a Color TV set was possible for only the rich atleast for a few years..
I used to get bored of watching the black & white images after seeing the Color TV images of the Vikram Betaal Serial in my neighbour's house yet again ! Naturally... our neighbours have always been or appeared to be richer than us.. hehe...
Then Ramayana concluded & wrapped up & yet another great epic called the MahaBharata was announced to be telecasted on the coveted Doordarshan channel.
This time, my dad wanted all of to be seeing the color images of the Indian Mythological saga to be played out on the TV. And yes.. he bought a colour Televison set for us this time.
I still remember that we were in the Davanagere city when this happened & we lived in an area called the Kasturba Extension. It was the time when the neighbors who were 10-15 houses apart were as friendly & up close as the close relatives are.
And there were only 2 houses which had color TV in our road & one of the houses happened to be ours. It was such a proud feeling that people used to look up to as the super rich !
And come Sunday 9 pm.. All the neighbors used to throng our house to witness the Mahabharata serial on the color screen.
The serials which remain imprinted in my mind when DD was lone ruler on the TV..
Doordarshan did not leave any territory unexplored.
1. Mitti ke Anek Rang... this serial used to telecast one short story every week with a socio-moral message hidden under it.
2. Malgudi Days - Very proud even today about this serial as it is from the house of Late ShankarNag who was talented to the core as a director & a film maker. Even today I relish on the episodes whenever I get a chance to see it.
3. Circus - This lively serial introduced the present ruling king of the bollywood industry - Shahrukh Khan through the small screen. His energetic acting ability & the restless attitude shown onscreen made him an instant hit among the households.
4. Afsane - The story of a postman who does not deliver a set of posts as he dies & this is found by his son who takes up the job of delivering the posts after a few years.. I think after 10 years. This was one of the most intersting stories I had ever seen as it showed how things would have changed in each of the lives of the individual postal addresse to whom the post had to reach 10 years back.
5. Street Hawk -
6. Time machine based serial -
7. Udaan - An aviation srory based serial.
Then there were these detective serials which used to keep us on the edge of our seats:
7. Byomkesh Bakshi -
8. Karamchand -
9. Tehkikaat -
Comedy Capers:
10. Mungeri Laal Ke haseen sapne
11. Flop Show by Jaspal Bhatti
12. Office Office
