50 Glorious Years For Doordarshan

So when was the last time you tuned to DD. Don't remember? Me too. But that's apart from the fact that I always try to catch up with Rangoli every sunday eventhough I really hate the anchor of the show. But when I came to know that it's been 50 long years for DD, I thought I should pay tribute to the network I grew up with.

So, what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Doordarshan? I did a little sort-of-"survey" on this question among my friends. Interestingly, they came up with things that I hadn't thought of when I was preparing a list of the probable answers from their side. Here goes the result:

1. There is a tie for the No.1 spot between Chitrahaar and News for Hearing Impaired. Eventhough I had expected Chitrahaar, News for Hearing Impaired was a surprise. Even Amma gave the same answers.
2. Next is Surabhi. As Pattar would say, how can you ever forget the beautiful Renuka? But everytime I used to watch Surabhi, I would be so sad because it reminded that the next day you had to go to school.
3. Now, this is interesting. The rainbow colored screensaver when there was any interruption. And also Rangoli. I really didn't expect Rangoli to come down to the third spot.
4. Chandrakanta. Remember that show which was the first of that kind in the television history.
5. I am putting rest of the answers in the fifth spot. Pattar remembers Turning Point with Girish Karnad and Prof Yash Pal. Sree remembers Srikrishna. Musically talented Obamamol remembers the music that comes before the news begins and also Miley Sur Mera Tumhara. Apparently Miley Sur was one of my favorites in the survey. Binu as always had some more interesting answers. Ek Se Badhkar Ek and also Madhumohan serials(?). As for Appimol , it was Sanskrit news and Reporter. Tuttudu also remembers Byomkesh Bakshi while Colonel can't forget the friday night blockbuster movie and the President's address to the nation.

Phew :) One of the famous joke on Madhumohan serials was that the late Veerappan couldn't get a bigger punishment than he being tortured to watch Madhumohan serials continously. I still haven't been able to solve the mystery why all the mummys would watch his serials. But I found one interesting fact about the serials. Madhumohan used to have only 3-4 lungis which he used put in 3 different serials.

It was in 1992 when we got a chance to actually own a TV, a black and white one. I remember the year because it was the Olympics time (Atlanta?) and me, brother, Amma and Achan would lie down on the floor watching Olympics every night. Then DD was the only channel available. I also remember constantly going upto the terrace to adjust the antenna direction so that the "picture becomes clear"( the engineer in me says to write it as "to recieve the signals properly"). So does LJ. Even before we got DD Malayalam, then called as DD4, we used to get the tamil channel along with DD1, the hindi channel. Now you know why I have soft corner for Tamil. Since I never had formal education of both the languages Malayalam and Tamil, I learnt both through TV and newspapers only.

I used to sit through the educational program in the morning, mostly when I'm compelled to do so. Remember Tarang? The program which used to telecasted on our summer vacation. Those puppet shows and the serial of "a very angry girl" and of those 5 friends. I used to eagerly wait for that. Surabhi, Tehkikat, Alif Laila, News and Fri-Sat night movies were a sort of family ritual. If I remember correctly, Doordarshan station used to close down after the 10pm News in English. That tick of ten was my time to sleep. And I could never see the films of Friday and Saturday because of this. The first movie I saw completely was "Love in Tokyo" and the song Sayonara... was a total hit among us. Remember the Vicco Turmeric advertisement? It used to be played during the second break of the films. And when Tezaab was telecasted, it took almost 5 hours to finish. So much was the no. of ads. And how can anyone forget "Roja" which used to be telecasted on every of the Independence and Republic days. I really liked Oshin, particularly when they had the dining scene. I used to be totally amused when they eat rice with chopsticks and also awe at the kimonos they wear. And Discovery of India/ Bharat ek khoj, I never used to understand it. The concert for national integrity which used to be telecasted in the sunday afternoons always put me to sleep. And the panorama movies. Haven't we seen movies of almost all the languages in India, that too without subtitles?

And then there was this era of mythological serials. Srikrishna, Om Namah Sivaya and Jai Hanuman were being played simultaneously. Byomkesh Bakshi and Tehkikaat paved way for Suraag. Shanti was Amma's favorite serial when it was being dubbed in Tamil. I remember how I used to rush from my school just to watch Swaabhimaan. I had the duty of narrating the episodes to my friends who used reach their homes late. And then School Days came. I still remember when I cried for a character in the serial who had a hole in his heart. Some really tried to copycat School Days but hard luck, they didn't fair well. By the end of my 10th grade we had switched over to cable. After that lured by the "satellite channel" programs, we started slowing down on our DD viewership. Still we retained our Rangoli, News and also Kashmirnama in our show-watching-list. So was my journey with Doordarshan which is quite similar to all of you. I was completely transported to my childhood days while writing this. Hope you too have the same feel.