Picture tubes,breaking news and midnight hot!!

“Satyam Siva Sundaram”...the classic doordarshan motto to the “We are the first to bring out the news” era CNN-IBN ...”The Heart of action AXN ” for the braver souls to “unplugged” MTV....we have seen it all!!!!

I have vague memories of television when broadcasting was still in its diapers and we were fed a staple diet of pre historic aerobics and yoga classes to news readers old enough to be kept mummified!! Those were times when I used to switch on television to watch the odd PSLV blasting off at some odd 3 in the morning or vintage Prannoy Roy’s “world this week”...otherwise it would be my favourite “giant robot” or holiday time “chutti chutti”.....DD sets were badly behind times and it became conspicuous once the private channels began airing flashy-glitzy stuff. But all was not bad...Sunit Tandon can walk into any present newsroom and read news in élan...DD has even got a good looking website with lots of color unlike the drab shades of grey that’s synonymous with them!!


And then during in 90’s the government said...

“Let there be channels and there came channels... a dozen of em”

And for the first time I began watching Star movies and “Small Wonder”. And a new found teenage curiosity resulted in fascination for the MTV’s and channel V’s...Should confess that I was awestruck by the micro clad anchors and hip-yep-rap style which was a culture shock for a small town guy like me. Cyrus Broacha looked like the coconut climber near my home...both wore shorts...and both had/were big “knives”.........So I finally began watching "NGC" and "Discovery" to improve “gyan”...But soon I felt woefully awful in the company of microbes...animals and extra sensory robots! To stand in good stead among friends I began watching new channels. But unfortunately our news readers sometimes suffer from severe back problem and a conspicuous stoop is visible while they read news in the “swivel-me-anytime” chairs. Poor guys they seem to read the news from placards kept a bit too far away...Years of watching news channels has taught me never to marry a journalist...You never know if they carry a hidden camera...Its eerie feeling that you are being watched!!

At some point in life I got curious about devotional channels...GOD was enlightening...Samskar was lightening...Trance...nirvana...bliss, words synonymous with spiritual high. But it was just some high decibel speeches and angrezi preachers! Recently my friend found out a new crop of channels...Sur sangeet being one of them. They play outdated music all the day and out of the blue they switch gears...”Over to Nagaland...”Over to Maharashtra”...”Over to Arunachal Pradesh” These are the “Over to specialized online lottery channels”...Sometime I wonder who ever watches these channels!!

If you love having a good laugh on a somber day check out “Oonkal SUN TVyil inthavaaram dub seytha puthan padangal”....... Kuntam kulukki annan kaathal panninaan (Shakespear in love)...Any dubbed English movie can be a laugh riot...Believe me I was laughing when I saw the dubbed climax of the “Titanic”. They can get ridiculously funny!!!!Old time favourite have become least sought these days. Wrestling (WWF) was craze years back and find it hard to watch it even for a few minutes nowadays. Some progs still gets me gaga. Tom n Jerry and Mr. beans any day!!

Have you noticed VJ/DJ’s brand themselves in “dial-up” shows? They wear shirts pinned up with rose flowers and then swivel back and forth about an invisible pole...Wow. They look cool!!!We have some channels selling state of the art “tummy reduction techniques” that can make you look “somalic”in 5 days and sofa-cum-bed-cum-carpet-cum-pool “ten in one” gadgets costing 20k which they courteously offer us for 3k..Very generous people isn’t!!.. Please call 1-600-5423-5555-2233 for free home delivery*...
*packaging charges 16k extra!!!


With 100’s of channels churning out every year, its is not far when we will be needing 5-6 TV sets to satisfy all couch potatoes...It has been a love hate relation with the idiot box....There are programmes that are lovely and inspiring...There are crap shows that can make you tear your hair out...there is enough gibberish and senseless talk shows. But this is a mad mad world and we have enough idiots, bigots, intellectuals, anarchists ... (the list goes on) who can hog the limelight!! And the world is not enough for em..!!!!!!!!!

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