I was forced to plug my ear phones in when after a few stations metro got crammed with people talking incessantly. A radio station was celebrating the 50th birthday of Doordarshan (DD) and I suddenly felt nostalgic when they played a track ‘Is rang badalti duniya mein, kya tera hai kya mera hai’ and asked the listeners to identify the show. Indeed all of us know it is ‘Dekh bhai Dekh’ as correctly as we know what succeeds ‘Twinkle Twinkle’.
During my childhood days Doordarshan seemed to be the only channel reserving the Television screen. I remember how we all used to snuggle in our respective seats just five minutes before the start of ‘Ramayana’. My grandmother made sure that all the kids are present in the room and Dad used to unravel the whole episode making it way too easy for us to understand. The characters, the cinematography, the performance everything appeared so real and entrancing which is missing in the present remakes.
Then there was ‘Shanti’ that I believe was the most viewed daily soap in our locality. In the afternoon, on my way back from school I could hear Mandira Bedi in every house that I crossed (Her looks were quite impactful though). Besides these, the programs that I liked included Chandrakanta (I can still visualize the big-mustached Kroor Singh), Potli ka baba (I din't mind getting up early on a Sunday morning for this), Mowgli (I have a ringtone 'Jangal Jangal baat chali hai' saved in my comp only because it reminds me of those good old days), Shaktiman (My brothers enjoyed watching it so there wasn’t any option left for me; Everything except for the character Geeta Vishwas was tolerable) and there were some that were not followed rigorously but viewed off and on.
DD certainly had its own charm before the cable hijacked not just our television set but our minds too. I don’t recall any news, music, movie or devotional channel and there used to be no fight over the remote control. Doordarshan was all in one consisting of every kind of program and henceforth providing a daily dose to its viewers. I have some delightful memories of the past and wish there was some way of bringing them back.
“Shesh samachar thodi der mein”
6 comments:
How can you forget the Sat and Sun movies, when we all used to collect our milk glasses and biscuits from Mom and sit in front of the TV. I used to keep praying it was an Amitabh or a Mithun Starrer.
Also Chitrahaar, Karamchand, ek do teen chaar....and remember serials then were weekly..not daily like now!!!
Really its gr8 Nishtha, it reminded me of my childhood days and regarnished my memories about the daily soaps we used to watch especially Mogli, i used to watch a lot and i still miss the show.
Thinking of DD, what comes to my mind is 'Yeh jo Hai Zindagi', 'Fauji' and 'Mirza Ghalib'. Star studded serials with impeccable performances.
There were some good directors involved as well. 'Tamas', 'Dil Dariya' and then Sai Paranjpe's 'Ados Pados'.
TV watching was lot more fun then I guess.
hmmm soo miss i can see how seriously now u r getting into writing blog......dis vry fact is commendable......now abt DD ..its really true doze refreshing serials r almost lost 4m tv n we all miss doze group moments:(.
we can just hope to get doze memories back sum way again...
Krur Singh... A bad man.. Hmm I named an irritating uncle on his name...
One thing that I relate the most to Doordarshan is the song, 'Mile sur mera tumhara, to sur bane hamara'. I remember that my grandpa use to turn on the TV to watch news, and the song got me out of my sleep everyday :-)
@Samit: I remember how i used to wait for a long week to see the next episode.
@Smurti: I know smurti. I miss that too
@HT: It certainly was fun. Unfortunately out of all you have mentioned I just saw 'Fauji'.
@Richa: Oh Richa the kinda spell the other channels have casted on us, we just can't go back to DD :(
@Shine: I loved that song and can still croon with just the right lyrics and tune :)
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