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!!