When Sunday Was The Best Day Of The Week!

 

The 80s seem extremely far off now (especially when you scroll through the list of Years to select your birth year). But for those of us who were lucky to have been born that time, it was definitely a golden period, right!?

It was a time when simple pleasures brought most happiness. And while we are talking about simple pleasures, one object that stands out prominently is the television.

Like most of the people during those days, my home too had a black and white TV set named Dianora. My earliest memories are of a show named Junoon (starring Tom Alter who fascinated me) and another one called Ajnabi. This show - Ajnabi - had a beautiful title song which had a really soothing melody and starred Danny Denzongpa. I remember that my dad would want to watch one show while my younger sister would want to watch another. Some days Dad won, some days he let my sister win!

The day we got cable connection was a day of celebration for everyone at home. I and my sister had proudly called our friends to come to our home so that we could watch a movie. I don't remember which movie we watched but it was surely a novel experience, owning a cable connection and watching a movie at home with friends. Around the same time, the black and white television got upgraded to colour tv. It was like seeing the world in a brand new light!

There are many beautiful memories associated with watching television with my whole family. Sunday mornings were cozily spent watching Chitrahaar and Rangoli. I would keep a tape-recorder and an empty cassette beside me while watching these shows. The moment a much-liked song would be announced as the next, I would press the Record button, hoping to save the song in the cassette. Of course, along with the song, my dad's ominous sneeze and the bickering of my sister and cousins would also get recorded. Sometimes I would laugh over this and other times I got frustrated. All in all, this was a good way to start the weekend which consisted of only Sunday.

Sunday evenings meant watching movies on DD channel. I remember one funny incident. Once the channel played the movie Aradhna, starring Sharmila Tagore and Rajesh Khanna. When the song 'Roop Tera mastana' started playing, my mom changed the channel. I, my sis and my cousins started complaining to her but my mom kept exchanging amused glances with my aunt and my Daadi and didn't switch on to the movie for the next five minutes. Looking back now, it feels so hilarious!

Sometimes we watched the movies at home and sometimes with friends at their home. It was equally fun, wherever we watched the movie.

Sometimes, we would have trouble with the cable connection. I and my friends knew the shop where the cable operator worked and we would go there to lodge a complaint. It didn't matter that we had to cross a busy junction to reach the shop. It did not matter that the shop would be guarded by local and domestic dogs who would start growling the moment we stepped around the shop. It didn't matter that we were scared of dogs. The important thing was to restore the cable connection as soon as possible!

The serial Chandrakantha was my first introduction to fantasy and I was totally enamoured with the show. It used to be relayed on Sunday morning. It became a custom to watch the show while eating Maggi. The arrival of the khaari-biscuit-waala in the morning, having Maggi as breakfast, watching shows like Chandrakantha and Mahabharat and watching a movie in the evening with family and friends made Sunday the best day of the week!

Television also introduced me and my friends to our all-time favourite serials, F.R.I.E.N.D.S and I Dream Of Jeannie. The anticipation these serials built up! I have chewed enough nails over the break-up of Ross and Rachel and have spent some really anxious nights wondering whether Jeannie and Nelson will ever get married. The wait that these serials subjected me to was worth every single minute. I also loved watching Dennis The Menace which was in black and white that time and other serials like Who Is The Boss, Bewitched and Silver Spoons.

I can't help thinking about the difference between the Sunday of today and the Sunday of yesteryears. Today, Sunday evening brings in blues of its own, heralding the cessation of weekend and the arrival of another hectic week. There are so many things one can do on Sunday - hang out in the malls, spend time with friends and family, dining out, watch a movie in theatre... so many things to do. And yet, Sunday hasn't ever felt like the Sunday of childhood which was really fun-filled and awesome.

All thanks to this object named Television. It brought people together. Not just family members, but friends and neighbours too. It made dining fun. It brought in real entertainment that the entire family could enjoy as a whole. Most importantly, it taught that often, happiness can be found in the simplest of things.