Vantage point




Wednesday, September 18, 2002


Woh Beetey Din....

Remember the television of the 80s? Before Murdoch noticed India?

Remember waking up early on Sunday to watch "The Disney Show"? Remember streets emptying on sunday mornings because of Ramayan and later Mahabharat?

Remember Mungerilal, Kakaji Kahin, Guniram, Flop Show and my favourite Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi? There were many more sitcoms which i don't quite remember.

Remember Khopdi and Guru in Nukkad? And 8:40 at night was the time there would be NEWS.

The World This Week friday nights.

Then the ads -

"Phenk do yeh kadhai!!", "Jeevdaya Netraprabha netraprabha", "Vicco Vajradanti..Ayurvedic Vicco Vajradanti.."

People would go visiting friends and relatives and the spoilt seven year olds of the house would be goaded to sing "advertisments". they would then mouth all the jingles and generally win applause.

Then there were the fillers

"Ek chidiya, anek chidiya", being my favourite.

Who can forget "Miley sur mera tumhara..."

I can go on and on listing those memories.

There is also "Rukawat ke liye khed hai"
I know that technically DD was inferior and there was no 24 hour programming. But the stuff then was so much better than the K-tastrophies of today.

I miss the DD of the 80s. It's a part of my childhood.

We all used to crib so much about DD in those days. I would read about Cable TV and wonder when it would come to India. And see what it has brought us?

I guess there are somethings in life we value only after we've lost them.