There are some stories that you just can’t just forget, no matter how many decades go by…. Swami and his friends, The Mithaiwala, A Horse and Two Goats are some episodes from “Malgudi Days”, embedded like scriptures in my mind. I remember as a kid, how I used to wait for this very program with my friends and then we used to humm the magical tone “Tananananananaaa….tanannaaanannnaaa” in sync with the mystical flute. 🙂 🙂
What characters were those, so simple yet so everlasting! Stories of common people from a common village with extraordinary direction and acting, Mr. Shankar Nag did a very fine job there!
90’s was an era that was golden and twinkling, we just had Doordarshan and yet we have endless memories of the few options that were available.” Byomkesh Bakshi”, the detective thriller that had your mind’s eye running the James Bond way. “Mitti ke rang” showcased the reverberatingly different aspects of life, every single episode illustrated a new situation, a new story!
Sunday mornings weren’t a half-sleepy, half frenzied fiasco… Duck tales with Uncle Scrudge McDuck and his nephews Huey, Duey and Luey marked start of the day, swimming in a heap of gold coins to count wealth, new treasure hunts and what not!
This was followed by Talespin, with Ballu and his stereoscopic “Chakkar-ghinni udaan” and Madame Mahalingam. Then came the Jungle Book, and we were all lost in the expeditions of Mowgli “the chaddi boy”-as we called him, bhalu, bageera, sher khan, akdu-bakdu, leela, tabaki….. <3
Weekends had special paranthas on the menu, and not to forget sweets and cookies. Yummy! 😛 Overflowing tummies and an extravagant dream frenzy then led us to the favorite Indian time pass during the 90’s: CRICKET. If I say it in my buddy Avijit’s wordings “Bwoy we loved it!” 😀 This is one game that every Indian must have played through his childhood, and we would play this ad infinitum until the sun declared a ceasefire. 😛
Back home there were scores of fiction stories still waiting with Vikram-Betaal, The Little Mermaid, I Dream of Jeannie, Karamchand and Chota Jadugar… New movie songs ruled the dinner time with Chitrahaar and all the best. I still remember laying a bet on what would be the no.1 song for the week 🙂 Personal favorite being the invisible dancer song “Muqabla-Muqabla”, which inadvertently led the charts for over 6 months… : )
As a result I was always out-standing on Mondays, as homework never bothered me! 😀
Oh yes I forgot to mention “Taaro”, that came Saturday mornings, with a tagline song dragon ka beta taaro 🙂 simply loved it!
Crap, I forgot another one “Nukkad”, one of the most adored shows of all time! (Seems I am suffering from Ghajjinisia : ) )
Today we do have a large pile up of channels, but no story worth the talk, no characters that make us think “wish life was like that”, accompanied by scarcity of dreamland!
We do have the TRP doodling, so-called “Reality Shows” where there is nothing bona fide! Khoadies, Raakhi ka khatam-var, Rahul ki Vidaai, Spits-ville, Big Loss…Man!! All big bhoolshit…
The other Soap operas we have are the likes of Saas bhi kabhi Bahu thi, utran, bartan and more such crap where almost every “Gharelu” lady has 3 husbands… one dies, another comes and then sometimes an additional lover…or it’s the other way round the “Perfect Pati” has 2 or more wives along with a complimentary girlfriend sometimes kids. Gimme a break!!! A spiced up vamp with overt makeup and some unreal acting (unreal as in fake), accompanied by some futile camera moments and off-course some horror-ifying music make it a perfect “Hogwash Package”
That’s it for now, had enough beep-beep… We’ll take more digs in the next post : )
Just to make sure that nothing goes beyond limits, this has a part-2 : ) So, if you think you loved the euphoric 90’s and that my Ghajjinisia has missed some memorable stuff… Do let me know, it’s surely going to be there in the next part!
