Friday 14 November 2014

Condolence, DD Style




Life was pretty smooth during our childhood. Those were the golden days of Doordarshan(DD). Well, the world DD brings on pure nostalgia and takes me down the memory lane of those special childhood days. There were very limited source of entertainment that time. Just imagine the meaning of our life without the basic needs of internet, mobile phone and cable TV(or DTH). But people were still happy those days and the only source of entertainment they had, was DD. No doubt that some of the serials showcased by DD during the late 80's and early 90's, were really of very high quality. Some of my favorites were 'Karamchand, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Fatichar'. Now what to say about cricket? Well, the game continued to be as popular. In fact, IPL has successfully managed to exploit our sisters, mothers, saas and bahus as well, as far as love for the game is concerned. But I feel cricket is more like a side dish, these days. But during our childhood it was undoubtedly the main course for the vast majority.

One fine afternoon, I returned from school in a hurry, riding my bicycle. One day cricket match was going on between India vs West Indies. I rushed to the TV room and as I switched on the TV, I was surprised that instead of cricket, a sad tune of Shehnai was being played. A couple of men were playing the sadness with their dismal face. I calmly waited and after a few minutes, the shehnai turned into a sitar. 

'Oh! Shit, some famous personality might have passed away,' I wondered. I was actually true, a well known personality indeed died that day. I was very disappointed as I was sure that DD would telecast Shehnai/Sitar vadan for the entire day. People had to follow such condolences mainly only for the politicians. The impact was slightly tolerable if the expired politician was regional. But for national level politicians, people had to live with the Shehnai/Sitar sad tunes for almost a week. The importance of a politician was directly proportional to the number of days DD seized to telecast the regular programs.

'But why the hell DD stopped telecasting a one day cricket match? It's just a sport'

Well, cricket, particularly one day cricket was always considered as entertainment. But I remember DD always used to telecast test matches, irrespective of which politician died that day. The logic was very correct, test cricket is less entertaining and was considered more like a sport rather than entertainment.

35 comments:

  1. Haha..yes, I can remember too..those days of DD :-D ...life was simple but happier, even with the Shehnai/Sitar recital :-P

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    1. Yes, those were happy days of DD :) Thanks for dropping by, Maniparna!!

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  2. The shehnai vadan! Oh! On one occasion some politician expired on a weekend and my Sunday Mowgli cartoon was replaced with shehnai vadan! Still remember how I cribbed.

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    1. Haha :) shehnai vadan was a torture. Thanks for dropping by, Shaivi !!

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  3. Nostalgic. I still rate old DD higher when listing fav channels.

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    1. Yes, DD serials were close to heart :) Thanks for dropping by, Paresh!!

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  4. The DD days..the shehnai vadan..pure nostalgia. And lets not forget the famous Doordarshan Tune which used to irritate me a lot back than but now I kind of miss the simplicity of the life that was :)

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    1. Yes, DD is pure nostalgia. I remember the tune, quite sad tune but I miss it though:) Thanks for dropping by, R Vyas !!

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  5. Yeah I remember them not telecasting movies mourning some politician's death.. As a child I used to love captain vyom, Alif laila, shaktiman, chandrakanta.. I still remember their title songs.. Sometimes I feel it is good to have just one channel, one option.. now with too many channels crowding our mind space we only like certain shows but not love them like we used to earlier..

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    1. Yes, lot many options confuse us :) DD days were very memorable. Thanks for visiting out here, Shruthi!!

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  6. hahahahaahahahahahah this brought back memories.hahah SITAR VADAN!

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    1. Hehe SITAR VADAN was quite irritating, but memorable also :) Thanks for dropping by!!

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  7. Those were the golden days of Television in India, for sure :)

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    1. Yes, those were really the golden days of Television in India :) Thanks for dropping by, Beloo JI !!

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  8. Ha ha! Actually, that seshnai used to be the music depicting sadness..Kya din the woh bhi..

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    1. Yes, shehnai vadan depicted sadness :) those were the memorable days. Thanks a lot for visiting out here!!

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  9. Lovely days it was Jahid. Thanks for sharing and bringing back those moments.

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    1. Glad you liked the post and could recollect your good old days. Thanks for dropping by, Gowthama!!

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  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. Having bout of Nostalgia after reading your post. (I still watch old clippings in Youtube like Mile sur mera tumhaara, ek chidiya cartoon) - Yes I remember those days when they played Sitar for the whole day and we used to wait endlessly as to when they start their usual reception. Nice post :)

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    2. Yes, those old clippings pleases out soul :) glad you enjoyed the post and could recollect your good old days!!

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  11. Ah those days!! Dekh bhai dekh was one of my favourite shows too!

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    1. Yes, those were our good old days :) Dekh bhai dekh was too good. Thanks for dropping by, Aditi !!

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  12. Yes, I remember the times, too. Thanks for sharing the nostalgic memories.

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    1. Glad you liked the post and refreshed your good old days :) Thanks for dropping by, Kiran!!

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  13. Good topic selected ..nicely written too.

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    1. Glad you liked the post. Thanks a lot for visiting out here!!

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  14. those days were indeed lovely and there was a certain childlike innocence feeling to entertainment...more importantly there was no Honey/Mika Singh

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    1. Yes, those were indeed lovely days. People were happy with small small things :) Thanks a lot for visiting out here, Sweta!!

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  15. your post made me soooo nostalgic...I remember as not many movies were shown out of desperation we even used to watch those regional movies on Sunday afternoon. and after 10 o clock TV used to be switched off.

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    1. Yes I do remember watching Sunday afternoon regional movies :) TV used to be switched off after 9:30 pm serial :) Glad you enjoyed the post and refreshed your good old days. Thanks a lot for visiting out here, Balaka!!

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  16. That's an interesting take on ODI vs Tests: Entertainment vs Sport :)
    I'm sure all of us who grew up watching Doordarshan (sometimes for lack of options) now remember those days with a fondness that's quite unmatched. DD and its signature shows evoke a unique kind of nostalgia, and not without reason. Where else would we now find sitar vaadan and krishi darshan, sprinkled with Dekh Bhai Dekh and Byomkesh Bakshi!

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    1. Yes, DD and its signature shows evoke a unique kind of nostalgia. Those were the days, good old memories :) Thanks a lot for dropping by!!

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  17. I have tagged you in #WillYouShave activity by BlogAdda in my post Wrong Queue . I hope you will accept the tag and participate in this contest.

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    1. Hello dear, sorry, I was a little occupied last few weeks. Thanks a lot for tagging me into the contest!!

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