What, oh what, is it about Doordarshan that takes you on a joy ride everytime it plays a program from the 80s? I was watching a one hour special on Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and by the time it ended, I was filled with a bucket of mixed feelings.
Folks of my generation would agree with me, I am in the fourth census-decade now but the first seems to be my most memorable of all. What makes the 80s so special? Is it because those were my formative years and so remain etched in my memory permanently? Or is it because we were all woven together by a same fabric called the Indian government that kept deciding for us what we should be doing?
From what I hear my folks at home, life in the 80s seemed to have had a simple lifestyle - where our choices were limited and so our complications were limited. There were only as many brands of cars to choose from (Fiat? or Ambassador?), as many places of work you could go to (Government? Or Private?) and most importantly, there was only one TV channel you could watch. And that was the fabric that stitched us all together.
Many of us may call Doordarshan to be crap today, but in the 80s, when it decided what we had to watch, they did a damn good job at choosing for us. They created stuff because those things had to be shown to people. People had to know what was going on in the world, so there was THE WORLD THIS WEEK. People around the world were watching their childhood heroes come alive and so there was HE-MAN and THE JUNGLE BOOK. News was news. Not a political vehicle.
When Pandit Bhimsen Joshi waved his hand and started singing "Mile sur mera tumhara" he did bring together the tunes of different people of the country. SHow me one person from the 80s who doesn't know this song and I would (as my mother would say) "chop my ears off".
For some strange reason, there is not much from the 90s that I could recollect and be fond about. At least not the later part of 90s. And not surprisingly, that was when choices began to take away what we enjoyed the most - the thing called common-interest that ties friends. Friends became rival gangs - I liked Mclaren and my best friend became a Ferrari fan. I liked Tamil channels and my friends were watching only Zee TV. I became confused about where I belonged.
When there is no choice, is life better? Or is it the lack of awareness of choices that makes our lives seemingly better? Sure my father was chasing a better lifestyle. He wanted professional education for his children. So that I could have a better lifestyle.
But what exactly is a better lifestyle? Is it about going to air-conditioned offices and driving a car to work instead of taking the 8:20 local to an Accountant's firm? Is it about wearing shoes to work and not Bata sandals? Just the other day, my colleague was telling me, "Dude are we any different from our parents? They went to work, earned, came back and did it again the whole week, the whole year, their whole life. Aren't we doing the same?"
I couldn't disagree with him. But then, this is life. Can this be changed at all? Then what is it that we want to break away from? Where would be the redemption point?
That still brings me back to the question that would continue to haunt me forever - what is it about the 80s?
Folks of my generation would agree with me, I am in the fourth census-decade now but the first seems to be my most memorable of all. What makes the 80s so special? Is it because those were my formative years and so remain etched in my memory permanently? Or is it because we were all woven together by a same fabric called the Indian government that kept deciding for us what we should be doing?
From what I hear my folks at home, life in the 80s seemed to have had a simple lifestyle - where our choices were limited and so our complications were limited. There were only as many brands of cars to choose from (Fiat? or Ambassador?), as many places of work you could go to (Government? Or Private?) and most importantly, there was only one TV channel you could watch. And that was the fabric that stitched us all together.
Many of us may call Doordarshan to be crap today, but in the 80s, when it decided what we had to watch, they did a damn good job at choosing for us. They created stuff because those things had to be shown to people. People had to know what was going on in the world, so there was THE WORLD THIS WEEK. People around the world were watching their childhood heroes come alive and so there was HE-MAN and THE JUNGLE BOOK. News was news. Not a political vehicle.
When Pandit Bhimsen Joshi waved his hand and started singing "Mile sur mera tumhara" he did bring together the tunes of different people of the country. SHow me one person from the 80s who doesn't know this song and I would (as my mother would say) "chop my ears off".
For some strange reason, there is not much from the 90s that I could recollect and be fond about. At least not the later part of 90s. And not surprisingly, that was when choices began to take away what we enjoyed the most - the thing called common-interest that ties friends. Friends became rival gangs - I liked Mclaren and my best friend became a Ferrari fan. I liked Tamil channels and my friends were watching only Zee TV. I became confused about where I belonged.
When there is no choice, is life better? Or is it the lack of awareness of choices that makes our lives seemingly better? Sure my father was chasing a better lifestyle. He wanted professional education for his children. So that I could have a better lifestyle.
But what exactly is a better lifestyle? Is it about going to air-conditioned offices and driving a car to work instead of taking the 8:20 local to an Accountant's firm? Is it about wearing shoes to work and not Bata sandals? Just the other day, my colleague was telling me, "Dude are we any different from our parents? They went to work, earned, came back and did it again the whole week, the whole year, their whole life. Aren't we doing the same?"
I couldn't disagree with him. But then, this is life. Can this be changed at all? Then what is it that we want to break away from? Where would be the redemption point?
That still brings me back to the question that would continue to haunt me forever - what is it about the 80s?
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