My First Colour TV

On October 31^st 1984, the Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi was

shot dead in the Indian capital, Delhi. 

   I was a youngster then, People suddenly started gathering in my house; many coming out onto the streets, and everyone looking tense and sad. I observed the people in my house listening to the radio set. During that time, popular radio channels : All India Radio, and BBC radio confirmed this news in the afternoon. I came to know that my father had gone out with one of his friends to purchase one special thing which I long waited for. I was so excited but could not express my feelings to anyone because no one in the house was free to talk. I was eagerly waiting for my father to come back home. Meanwhile, I had informed all my friends and asked them to come over as there would soon be a surprise coming to my house.

   I, along with my young friends and other people, was sitting in the house listening to the serious news on the radio. After a long wait, my father called me from outside and I went out to him running. What he was holding in his hand was a carton containing a 21" Niki Tasha, a Japanese made colour television. I was super excited then !! My uncle and his friends came to install the large antenna and a big bundle of cable. Me and the other children, were helping the team, providing water and some tea. When the connection was complete, my father kept the new TV in the middle of the street for public viewing. National channel was broadcasting the coverage of the assassination.

I was the happiest person in the house. 

   I got to see a brand new color television for the first time.

I was on cloud nine. My friends and I got intensely engaged with the television set itself, rather than the unfolding news. We constantly hovered over the set.  After a period of time, my level of excitement went down as I was told to watch from a further distance to avoid harmful rays.

   I kept on waiting to feel the initial rush of the new TV again. I didn’t even realize the moment when my excitement finally turned into mourning, like all the adults. The rest of the evening, and next day was completely sad and sorry. After two days, our TV set was now in our living room. I turned it on and found out it interesting to see talking images on the screen. It was fun to see cartoons and different images on screen come alive with bright fascinating and remarkable colours. My life completely changed after that arrival of this new member of my home. My day began with TV, afternoon eating in front of the TV, and in the evening, friends coming to my home to watch movies and cartoons.

My Colour TV

Our TV had no remote control, so it was more fun playing with different switches on the TV set. 

   
   I used to change the vibrant colors to completely black and white. I used to make them bright and sometimes faded. I used to count the number of channels starting from zero again and again. I placed the TV set in different positions to make the living room well set and organized. I always turned away the antenna in different directions to get a better signal. Well, I sometimes used to even scold the TV and slap it in its head and ears (speakers), when it could not give me any sound ! I could watch this idiot box for hours. As I grew up, limitations on TV time became necessary due to my studies.

   Today, I rarely have time to watch TV as I am completely immersed in the fast pace of the world. I am running in the race of life, to fulfill all my desires, keeping hold in my memory, all the wonderful times I had spent in my childhood with my best friend, ‘my idiot box’. But sometime in my life I want to rewind those beautiful moments and get hypnotized by the magic of TV again. I want to get entertained by the cartoons I used to watch. I want to see all those old commercials which convinced us of buying those products. I want to see all the soaps, whose characters and predictions were discussed by the members of the house. I want to use that old manually operated technology, turning switches off and on, which was created a different way of thinking than today’s digital technology. I want to gather all my friends over tea and watch cricket match films on television. I want to see all those ‘black and white ants’ we used to call the noise when there was no signal, I want to shoo away the crows and sparrows which used to sit on our roof  antenna and break the cables apart !!

All I want is to once again fall in love with TV!!

# Rewind Stories :

Story 1: "Banana Skin"


I remember, when I was seven years old; I was sitting on a railway platform in a city called Parbhani, in India. I was with my mother, uncle and younger brother waiting for the train. Waiting hours for the train, we realized that the train would be late due to heavy rains in another city. We had no other option than to only wait and it really tested our patience. 

To catch the train on time, we left the house early in the morning and could not have breakfast. Our stomachs were growling with hunger, so we decided to get some snacks and munch on them. My uncle got some very tasty samosas and fruits. Busy eating snacks, I started carefully observing the surroundings at the railway station. It was a completely new learning experience for me as my mom told me about how a train runs on the track, and how steam engine pulls the train.

When my stomach was fully satisfied with the stuff I had put in it, I started playing with my younger brother. He was still eating a banana, and I was all ready to play with the peel. My uncle went to buy some magazines; my mom was busy reading newspaper. Without anyone looking at me, I snatched the banana skin from my brother’s hand and dropped it on the platform. I had always wanted to see if someone could really slip on the banana skin. This was the perfect time and of course a perfect place, to get this answer. People who were smart enough walked around it carefully. My brother and I were very eager for one unlucky person to step on it, unknowingly. We waited and waited till we saw a person carrying two heavy bags. He hadn’t noticed what was on the platform. He was slowly approaching the peel while we stared at him, and our excitement was really going up. Our wait was coming to an end it seemed, when finally the time came. He stepped on the skin, slipped hard, falling and taking all his luggage with him. He completely tumbled!! All of a sudden, people started gathering around him, helping him stand up. My brother and I were laughing our fullest, having seen our imagination turn into reality. Then my mom realized that it was me who dropped that banana skin intentionally.

The whole funny scenario completely changed into a serious situation. Without thinking anything, my mom slapped me and asked me to apologize to him. My uncle, who was a near, came running and helped him pick up his bags. The man managed to walk slowly with his heavy dented metal bags and carried on his way. My uncle picked up the banana skin and threw it into the garbage bin.

For me, the entire sequence of events took place in slow motion, up till the time my uncle gave me a slap on my other cheek. I was completely stunned, with my mouth wide open!! I had never ever thought that one banana skin would show me a different world!!

Time flew, and years later, when I myself toppled from a banana skin somewhere on Mumbai platform, I realized that the effects of even a small accident are really, very bad. My elbow deeply hurt, my favorite jeans torn, and some bad looking bruises were what I got in return. Also, God had sent an audience to laugh at me, and they were none other than my own group of friends!! This was the same scene repeated, but only with different characters!!

Thereafter, I never threw anything on the ground in a public place; especially a banana skin!!

Whenever I see a banana skin lying anywhere, my mind does a flashback, and I see the images of that ‘special person’ and that ‘special me’, falling in slow motion on the railway platform. That incident haunts me till today and reminds me of my bad behaviour.

Aah!! I wish I could rewind this scene in my life, and change it by throwing that banana skin into the garbage!! I wish I could!!