Dear Friends,
We bought a TV in 1986! I remember it was a Dynora TV. It was a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) television with a wooden or dark plastic cabinet. It had manual channel tuning knobs and a rooftop antenna connection. It had to be pointed toward the nearest Doordarshan transmission tower. TV signals traveled through the air and were captured by the antenna. When strong winds came, the picture became blurry, or "snow" appeared on the screen. Two people used to operate it. One changed the direction, and the other, at home, shouted about the picture quality!! In IT language, it is called debugging and testing!!
Today, we have transitioned to Cable TV, DTH (Dish TV, Tata Play, Airtel), and Internet streaming (YouTube, Netflix, Hotstar). In those days, the total number of National Hindi serials was around 10–20. A typical household probably knew 80–90% of them. Today, across the world, there are approximately 5,000–10,000 TV serials and 3,000–5,000 OTT originals. The total number of active shows today is around 10,000–15,000. If you include library content, the total would be 100,000–300,000 serials/shows/series available for streaming globally.
Today, I don't think any family member discusses any serial because viewership is completely fragmented. We moved from content scarcity to content abundance, and now the new scarcity is attention.
In those days, the prominent programs were News, Krishi Darshan, Chitrahaar, Hum Log (started in 1984), Sunday movies, and regional programming. However, I still remember a serial named Malgudi Days. Malgudi Days (1986) is one of India's most beloved television series, based on the works of R. K. Narayan and directed primarily by Shankar Nag.
I asked GPT a simple question—what was the title song, to test GPT's performance!! It gave the right answer: Tan-na-na-na... tan-na-na-na...
Why did I get captivated by Malgudi Days? Malgudi Days teaches empathy, observation, moral reasoning, and cultural roots without sounding preachy. Malgudi is a fictional small town. The episode I remember was The Missing Mail/Maa Aur Beta. A mother keeps waiting for her son at the railway station. I don't remember whether the son comes back or not—mostly not. Trains come and go. Passengers come and go. But a mother's hope remains.
Where are such programs today? Where is the time to share such emotions? The other day, I was traveling in a local bus. Two children were simply playing video games and fighting virtually while sitting side by side. The parents were watching their own reels!
"Taarangam Tales" (@taarangam.tales) recently launched Emotions of Ranga, a book that presents various emotions, their importance, and what is good and what is wrong. We need such books now because they are missing from our lives.
Malgudi Days was written by R. K. Narayan in 1943 as a short story collection. Shankar Nag, the director of this serial, lived a short life (35 years), but he became a true legend in Karnataka. Shankar Nag was not just a filmmaker; he was a visionary urban planner and social reformer. In 1989, he invested his own money and conceptualized the Bengaluru Metro blueprint, envisioning a modern public transport system decades before its actual implementation. His brother, Anant Nag, who acted in Malgudi Days, is active in public life.
Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami (R. K. Narayan), the author of Malgudi Days, and his youngest brother, the famous Indian cartoonist and illustrator R. K. Laxman, are true legends who influenced many families across India.
Do you have any nostalgic moments with Malgudi?
Ravi Saripalle
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