Watching "Television" in the late 80s and the early 90s - A walk down the memory lane!!

If you were 80s or 90s born you can easily relate to this blog.

We are currently in the lockdown period and as old Doordarshan serials are telecasted I feel nostalgic thinking about my childhood days.

Guess it was 1987 , I was a toddler then when Ramayana was first telecasted in the television. I vaguely remember how my paternal grandparents, parents, uncle and aunties(we were one big joint family) would eagerly wait for it to be telecasted every weekend. We all used to assemble in the living room of our rented house and once we see "Ramayan" text displayed in our black and white television there would be pin drop silence.

I used to sit on any of the elder's lap mostly it was my grandpa and watch the programme. It was from that time that I slowly got to know about one of the greatest epic.

Then it was "Mahabharatha" that was telecasted. We used to watch in awe how those scenes were created especially the war scenes. I still remember the story of Mahabharatha that I watched when I was around 5 years of age. Also, just imagine how it reached so many people even though there was no powerful media then as we have now with Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram and so on!! 

Both Ramayana and Mahabharatha became a household name those days when, older to younger generations were grooved to Television. There was no fighting for the remote control to change the channel(though there was no remote controllers for television during that time).

Jokes apart,irrespective of age, we all watched a single program. In fact as far as I remember, we had this black and white Solidare TV first,  only few years later my father bought a colour television. Since those serials were telecasted weekly once they had very good content and created a curiosity among people on what will happen in the next episodes to come.

Then came Ramanand Sagar's "Sri Krishna" followed by Sanjay Khan's "Jai Hanuman". Not only mythological tales, there were some comic shows as well like Dekh bhai dekh, Tu Tu mein mein(neeya naana,neeya naana), Shrimaan Shrimathi(Thiruvalar Thirumathi) and some commercials like Junoon(Pidivadham), Kanoon(Sattam), and so on.. Almost all of these were dubbed to "Tamil" language.

Years passed by,then there was this super human power serial "Shakthimaan" which did attract children those days. In fact I remember few kids tried to imitate him and got injured that at one stage there was disclaimer at the beginning of the serial asking not to try these stunts at home.

As soon as I returned from school in the evenings there was this serial telecasted called "Yug" which was based on "Freedom struggle of India". Then all of a sudden I guess they stopped it. Another serial which had a huge viewership was "Oru penin Kadhai"(Story of a women) which was based on the life of an ambitious women who was married at a very young age and she became a widow on the same day of her marriage. How she, along with the support of her family overcomes all hurdles and becomes a successful doctor forms the major part of story line.

There were only two channels DD national and DD metro wherein some serials were  dubbed to regional languages to suit the audience. In between we had entertainment programs such as "Oliyum Oliyum" every Friday night where new Tamil songs were played followed by "superhit muqabula" in the 1990s with the same concept.

Every time the patriotic song "Mile sur mera tumhara" was was telecasted in Doordarshan ,it did give goosebumps to every Indian. Trust me not only me but every kid knew the lyrics of the whole song though we didn't know the meaning and pronunciation of some of the words as it was in many Indian languages.

Then there was this "Didis comedy show" telecasted as fillers for 10 to 15 minutes which would definitely bring a smile on anyone's face.

Amul Surabhi(a chat show hosted by Renuka Shahane and Siddharth kak), Ranu'vin cartoon neram(wherein famous artist Ranu taught how to draw using basic steps) and serials like Sea hawks, Chandrakantha, Alif Laila, Sindabad were few other hits those days.

Not to forget, every night 8.30 pm(if I remember the time right) was the Tamil news hour. Unlike these days we cant listen to "News" 24/7.

Until the beginning of 2000 we didn't have cable connection at home and it was fun and satisfying to watch the programs on DD National/DD metro.

Those days will never come again. Only the people who experienced it can relate to this.

Our grandparents and parents were able to spend quality time with us without any electronic gadget distractions and so did we unlike today's generations.

If you do have any experience of watching 1980-1990s television please do share it in the comments section!!