November 21 is a real special day. Dunno why? Well, let me tell you, it is a day dedicated to the television. It may appear quite simplistic, rather crazy, to dedicate a day to 'television' of all the things.
So may think the Gen Next who now constantly have the very computer in their palms in the form of mobiles. Ours, however, was the era of pleasant and gentle discipline. Till their youngest son passed his XII, my otherwise generous and kind parents did not want a television set at home.
Very few households would have a t.v. set. Important events such as the Olympic matches would have to be shared with family friends and neighbours. There was only one channel, and it was black and white, moreover.
The technology might have been simple, but the content was indeed the king. The serials used to be based either on the great Indian epics or would be rooted in simply superb literary texts. 'Chitrahar' with its great Bollywood songs every Sunday morning and great films on Sunday afternoons formed our staple weekend diet.
Always watched together in a tightly rationed way, all these were family programmes, moreover, be it the 'Surabhi' quiz or 'Phool khile hai Gulshan Gulshan' by Tabassum who passed away recently. Why, many people had even their favourite news broadcasters!
All that straightforward innocence and clean conscience of our teenage years vanished from the small screen when the multi-channel colour t. v. invaded. Well, come the LPG process of the early nineties, and the living room based family friend, called the t.v., morphed into an Idiot Box.
By the early years of the new millennium, individual t.v. sets in each room with the private space of each member of the family took away the togetherness, and replaced it with niche programmes catering to different generations.
Now, anyways, is the era of "band kar lo duniya mutthi me", literally the 'mobile' universe at your fingertips. Somehow, however, the magical touch is missing though wonderful channels such as the Discovery, History Today, National Geographic, ET, too, are available alongwith the "breaking news" twenty four by seven, not to mention the impossible "k" type serials.
One wonders though if these, too, are avidly watched as more "attractive" alternatives are available via the mobile, not to mention the eternal sports matches and the ubiquitous cartoons on the multi channel t.v.
Well, as we were young and growing, the t.v. indeed was Alladin's lamp, unlike the Pandora's box that it is today!
Pratima@The t.v. is some proof of how technology is Alladin's lamp. It is for us how to rule the genie in the lamp!
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