I don’t know how but the other day suddenly those days came to my mind when only one TV channel existed in India-Doordarshan! Not like the present day when scores of channels are available on a press of a tiny button.
I remember when a huge TV transmission tower in my home-town started beaming first ever signals of the only channel called "Doodarshan", there was only one small black and white TV (months later a coloured screen-half red and half green was put to give an impression of colour TV!) in the Govt colony we use to live. Luckily the proud owner happened to be my friend’s father! Needless to say I use to spend full time watching whatever was shown (even the ones related to agricultural seeds and manure!). Full time here does not mean 24 hrs. There were only morning and evening sessions of three hrs each!
Big crowd used to gather as if it was a cinema hall. The crowd was huge and unmanageable in the small room (many use to b e far away near the entrance, I wonder what they will be able to see!) particularly on the day when it was time for CHITRAHAR, weekly Hindi movie (like Jai Santoshi Maa) on Sunday evenings (saw many old ladies praying in front of TV screen!) etc.
By the time my 2-3 friends' father also purchased TV and the crowd got distributed! Request to my father to purchase one fell in deaf ears as he had apprehension that my studies will be effected. On my insisting that all my friends have TV, which puts me in quite an embarrassing situation, he laughed and said, “ok, v’ll get only an antenna installed on terrace, so that ur friends will think u have TV”! (In those days a big antenna, set in a particular direction, comprising of 2-3 straight and one U-shaped bar was required to receive signals. Many times watching TV was at the mercy of crows and other birds which use to sit and rotate or tilt the antenna thus resulting in "no signal". Antenna then has to be reset in right direction with lot of trial and error to get signal). Finally we purchased TV after almost everybody else in the colony had one!
FOLLOWING ADDED AFTER THE ABOVE LINES WERE PUBLISHED
Also remember people watching those colourful vertical lines patiently waiting for programmes to start. And who will forget that irritating caption “rukawat ke liye khed hai" (meaning “sorry for inconvenience caused”). This happened too often and lasted several minutes, even more than half-an hour at times; but people use to stare at screen wondering that only God knows when signal will be back!