Time Machine

My earliest memory of a television is a black and white Dyanora that used to live in a wooden cabinet with shutters. Opening the shutters required an adult's intervention and I believe it is the best form of parental control ever. This was when I was about six years old. The TV used to live in my folks bedroom and on cold winter weekends, the families in Agra would bundle up in all their sweaters and shawls and walk through the fog to watch it. I still remember crying loudly when Amitabh Bachchan died at the end of Shakti and being pampered with Gold Spot (or was it ThumsUp) to shut up and stop making a scene. (But how could he just DIE like that??)

Other things I can remember are being afraid the power would go off just in time for Spiderman (as it always did) or waiting for Krishi Darshan to get over so that Chitrahaar could start on long Wednesday evenings. In fact I can remember a lot of things, but then this post would never end.

That set me thinking, that it would be great to know what everyone remembers or feels about those good old days. Nostalgia is always in fashion.

So here I am starting to write things you can remember about Doordarshan. I am not putting a number there because as I began to start my list I realised that 5 is too little. Below is my list:

1. Surabhi - The informative program. And it used to take us to far away lands, scenic, picturisque, lovely, made me dream to go there one day...the different people who featured there........

2. Malgudi Days - Taa Naa Naa Tana Nana Naaa - need I say more?

3. Street Hawk - This is Jesse Mach and ex-motorcycle cop, injured in the line of duty, now recruited by a top-secret government mission to ride Street Hawk... Man, that blew me away.

4. Ek se bhar kar ek - it started when doordarshan was dying..it was a movie songs countdown show.

5. The World This Week - Prannoy Roy, cool graphics, Tony Banks's music. International news was here...and how!! I used to wait for the Newsmakers section with bated breath.

6. The language movie on Sunday afternoon.

7. Mouse Mouse and gang.

That's my list, and I have left out a lot, and stuck to really old stuff. Chaddi pehan ke phool khila hai, Gul Gulshan Gulfaam and other stuff - I hope to find on other lists.

The setting on the time machine should be circa - 1983.

Cheers.