Nostalgia!

Remember the time when the entire family would gather in the living room, 8:00 PM -Wednesday, Chitrahaar. Uninterrupted film songs till 8:30 PM, really, I am serious, no Advertisements. At 8:30 PM, the family would disperse, Mom into the kitchen to heat up dinner, the kids into their rooms to make a last gasp attempt at homework, Dad probably would stick around, the only soul still interested in Hindi Samachar. 9:00 PM and everyone's back for Byomkesh Bakshi. The man with the plan, the Bengali detective, (one of the coolest guys). Dinner is consumed and so are our nails. If your family was the late night kinds, then it didn't stop at that. 10:00 PM - Surabhi. Siddharth Kak and Renuka Shahane, travel the country and show us every tradition and 'rithi rivaj' associated with places, and who can forget the question of the week, and the lakhs and millions of correct letters in which the man would literally dive into before picking up the winning letter.

T.V and Doordarshan meant the same thing to us. Multiple channels was not a concept and we were happy being ignorant. Series like Nukkad (the cool guy Guru), Mongarilal ke Haseen Sapne, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Zhabaan Sambhalke, so many more to mention, the entire country watched one and the same thing. And then there were the Ramayan's where in the battlefield, Ravan or one of his sidekicks has just launched this nasty black, violet-purple arrow and our hero Mr. Ram, is cooly in his prayers before launching his bright white arrow (time-lag not a problem). Even better, the white arrow is now 10 white arrows. Now comes Ravan's turn to pray and get his 10-black ones and they clash!!

Back then in India, there was only one white guy, American or English, we had no clue, but there was only one white guy, name Tom Alter. Any and every serial that needed a representation of white coloured guy would have to be Tom Alter. A legend in his own right.And who can forget the Sunday morning educational animation series, the 'Ek Thithali, Anek Thithiliya..... Sooraj Ek, Chanda Ek, Taare Anek' ... :). Priceless!

Growing up in the 1990's had its own perks, the biggest of them being that family time was a given, an effortless activity. I think my generation has been the most blessed generation, no?

"Jungle Jungle Pata Chala Hai, Chaddi Pehenke Phool Khila Hai, Phool Khila Hai"
:)