This post is inspired by one of Kush’s post that brought back memories of the good old days to me.  Thank you Kush for that “Ek chidiya anek chidiya” video.

It was the year 1982 when my dad decided he has to watch the Asian Games in the comforts of our home and brought home our very first TV (an Uptron B&W version…..the Ad for this brand went like….”What’s on?? It Uptron.” With a boxing glove punch on the face asking the question!!)  I guess they have stopped making this brand anymore….it now rests in the home of one of the guy who used to run errands for us, and boy…was he trilled!!

So my first brush with television began with “Appu,” the elephant mascot for the Asiad that year.  I still am a big fan of “appu.”  I used to feel hypnotized by the Yin-Yang symbol of DoorDarshan with its accompanying music.  Then began a list of endless programmes on Doordarshan (the only channel those days!)…..lemme list a few as I can’t remember all of em….for adults it was Hum Log, Udaan, Fauji, Buniyaad, Khandaan, Circus, etc….and we kids would be all eyes and ears for Star Trek, Karamchand, Giant Robot, He-Man & the Masters of the Universe, Vikram Aur Betaal, Spiderman, Mowgli…and the like.

Thank god there was no Ekta Kapoor back then….or all serials would start with the letter “K” and would invariably be about the saas bahu dramas!!  We had so much varieties back then.

I had a crush on Sharukh who stole the little girl’s heart in me with his portrayal of a soldier in “Fauji” and a circus crew in “Circus.”  Btw, I had an even major crush on He-Man!!!

Current events were in their own league then.  Every Fridays, we were captivated by Pronnoy Roy taking us around 'The World This Week.'  Then there was Renuka Sahane in Surabhi with her 100 watt smile constantly throughout the program.

Does anyone remember 'Oshin'???  I used to love this.  Wish they telecast it all over again! My mom used to wait for that one “Malayalam” movie of the month with bated breaths on every Sunday afternoon following the NEWS for the hearing impaired (which by the way, we all sat and watched in spite of our clear hearing abilities)!!  Chitrahaar was our only dheko into new hindi movies unlike today when stars are all over television going ga-ga over their new movies with the standard “this is very different from all my previous films that I have done” routine.

The DD NEWS was entertaining too…..no, not for the scandalous “breaking news” like today but for the pretty news readers and their English….gosh, I used to admire them (I actually believed they wrote the whole thing up themselves….how intelligent I thought!!).  There was Gitanjali Iyer, Rini Khanna, Manjari Joshi…..don’t remember any of the guys, for obvious reasons!  My mom was in awe of their dressing sense.  She used to keep track of the sarees worn by them and that was her basic interest in “News,” nothing else mattered unless it was a catastrophe being reported!

The commercials….I remember the Rasna Ads….it was a beautiful jingle with a pretty girl.  Then there was this Amul Chocholate ad that had the catch line “a gift for someone you love” (and I thought this was the boyfriend-girlfriend love….and was longing for a boyfriend who would give me this….sniff…sniff… but my idea of a boyfriend was He-Man….suffices to say that I never got the chocolate!!).

Rukaawat ke liye khed hai!!