Rangoli to children of the YouTube generation is nothing more than the colourful design which their moms/sisters or aunts do in front of their house. Actually not really, it is the geometric designs which the domestic help makes at the entrance of the house. Mention Surabhi— ‘name of a person’? Or say Chitrahaar and you find the younger lot turning to find it on Wiki or Google search.
The same when mentioned to those who are not quite smart phone savvy or still fall back on their memory to remember birthdates and anniversaries will not take much time to say ‘Ah good old Doordarshan days’ and it takes most of us down memory lane. Mention of DD is a trigger to discuss some good memories from ads to TV serials.
“If nothing comes, we would even watch Krishi darshan .— the most boring programme for students. I remember watching Oshin and the time when neighbours without TV came to our house to watch Indira Gandhi’s funeral. Some of them even wept,” says communication consultant Uzzal Mohan. Uzzal also remembers the ‘English’ movies which used to be aired late at night. “Most of us then had the black and white television sets. Olympic was a big deal then and so was Wimbledon matches,” he recollects.
Mention DD and can anyone forget the signature tune and montage? Some describe it as haunting but yet recollect waiting eagerly to watch it form the logo like a moon emerging from the clouds. Remember Hirthik mimicking and calling it “very depressing”, in the movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara ? “Every evening all of us would wait and watch logo form with a sad and haunting music. But that was our world of entertainment. Still remember the most popular Chitrahar where I used to enjoy my then favourite Shammi Kapoor songs. Another popular agricultural show was Paalu, Chelu, Pandula pempakam (milk, fields and pig farming),” recollects realtor Ashwin Rao.
Ashwin adds “the news for the hearing impaired was a big mind opener. I used to watch it out of curiosity and that’s what taught me that there is language called sign language. Every Sunday afternoon was a treat because the regional movies in Bengali, Assamese and Malyalam were shown.
DD is a trigger for more memories that range from Giant Robot , Moughli , Spirit of unity concert theme , the film division animations, Chandrakanta , Ramayan , Vikram aur Betaal , He-man, the masters of the Universe , Neev , Fauji and the list goes on. “Some the newsreaders were role models. Rini Simon, Shammi Narang, Salma Sultan, Neethi Ravindran, Manjari Joshi, Komal GB Singh, Usha Albuquerque, Ramu Damodaran, Sunit Tandon, Gitanjali Aiyar, Minu. They were no less than divas. But my personal favourite was Hyderabad DD’s Shanti Swaroop ” recollects actor/director Srinivas Avasarala.
Srinivas has memories of how their neighbour would open the common door and they watched the same TV while sitting in their house in Chikkadpally. “Shanti Swaroop was our neighbour and everyone who passed by that road would never miss a chance to look in the direction of the house in the hope catching a glimpse of him,” says Srinivas.
Isn’t DD also the place which introduced us to ‘art movies’? The name must have changed to serious cinema, but that was the only channel which gave access to good meaningful cinema. It gave us the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman as well.
“I miss Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi , Mahabharat , Hum Log , Buniyaad , Rini Simon, Sumit Tandon, He-Man , Kavithaji of Surf. But most of all I miss the time when everyone in the family used to come together in front of the TV to watch one programme. Unlike now when we have multiple options, dad watching cricket, mom her serials, son busy with Roadies and daughter chatting with boyfriend on Viber,” says journalist Utpal Parashar.
The ads still ring, so does the tune of the spirit of unity and while we still hope we get the good old DD days back, we do miss the little antics we did rotating our antennas for better reception.
