Good old Doordarshan Days

Sukalpa Dhar, Kolkata: Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the government of India. It was established on 15th September, 1959. It has completed a glorious journey of 61 years in 2020 and is still running successfully with flying colours. Indian public from all parts of India watched it extensively. But with the advent of cable channels their rate of viewership has got reduced upto great extent. In our home cable arrived in the later part of 2003. Colour television was also very rare in those days. Before the last part of 2003 we had a Keltron black and white TV.

Doordarshan telecasted many exciting serials. It also covered special programmes on important days such as on Independence day, Republic day etc. The ‘New Year Eve’ was specially celebrated with a gala programme comprising of dance, music, songs, stand-up comedies etc for which we would eagerly keep waiting throughout the year. On 31st December every year we would finish our dinner early and fix all our eyes on the TV screen. We watched the show which started about 10 pm in the night and culminated by the dong of mid-night with lots of fun and frolic. People used to wait eagerly for the specific day and allotted time slot to watch their favourite shows or programmes. The news hours were also fixed. There was no 24×7 news channel. Doordarshan National was the first channel to start. On 9th August, 1984 Doordarshan launched it’s second channel for the metro/urban audience which was called Doordarshan Metro and named it DD 2 and the existing first channel Doordarshan National was renamed as DD 1. Gradually, Doordarshan’s other sister channels such as DD Bharati, DD India, and DD Sports etc came into being.

In 1984 cable television appeared in India. In the early 1990s many private channels were launched. But even then Doordarshan had an incredible reach out and popular in lakhs of homes in comparison to cable television channels. People used to sit and watch and enjoy their favourite programmes with friends and family members which were telecasted in the various channels of Doordarshan. It had the power to unite people and family members. It increased the feeling of oneness, brotherhood, family bondings. It spread awareness and the pride to be an Indian.

Doordarshan Metro also known as DD 2 was launched in 1984 as an alternative to Doordarshan National. In 1993, Doordarshan Metro was relaunched as DD-2 Metro. On 2003 the Prasar Bharati Corporation replaced DD Metro with their new news channel DD News.

I have got many memories attached with Doordarshan National and Doordarshan Metro. It all started with watching ‘Om Namah Shivay’ (1997), ‘Jai Hanuman’ (1997), ‘Shaktimaan’ (1997). Later I started watching ‘Junior G’ (2001). In Doordarshan Metro I watched ‘Talespin’, ‘Meena’, ‘Duck Tales’, ‘Mickey Mouse’. On Sundays at 9 pm my parents and I watched ‘Surabhi’ (1993) in Doordarshan National. According to the Limca Book of Records, the show, ‘Surabhi’ once received the highest ever documented response in the history of Indian television that is over 1.4 million letters in a single week. It ran from 1993 to 2001.

I was an avid viewer of ‘Om Namah Shivay’ (1997), ‘Jai Hanuman’ (1997), ‘Shaktimaan’ (1997), ‘Talespin’, ‘Duck Tales’ and ‘Mickey Mouse’ and watched these shows religiously. During that time ‘Jai Hanuman’ (1997) and ‘Shaktimaan’ (1997) became a few of the very popular and the most watched TV shows among the children. ‘Shaktimaan’ (1997) gave India it’s new superhero. In those days Television antennas were used and they were most of the time fixed in the roof tops. Television antennas were specifically designed for use with a television receiver to receive over the air broadcast television signals from a television station. Many a time birds used to sit in our TV antenna and disrupted the signals. Then we had an arduous task of moving up to the roof and fix up the antenna again properly. Every Monday at night ‘Om Namah Shivay’ (1997) was telecasted in DD 1 and ‘Jai Hanuman’ (1997) was telecasted in the same channel but on Tuesdays. Whenever the title track of ‘Om Namah Shivay’ was played I used to dance with the tunes of Pandit Jasraj. These shows created a huge impact in my mind. I became a big time Shiv bhakt. Often on Sundays my parents took me to the Uzan Bazar river side at MG Road on way to Governor House. The place is now developed into Sati Radhika Prashaanti Udyan. There was a Shiva linga or lingam situated right in the bank of the Brahmaputra. A Nayantara plant was there near the Shiva linga. Whenever I visited there I would pluck some Nayantara flowers and offer them to Lord Shiva and prayed. I never missed to pray Lord Shiva. One day when I visited the place I found a trishula tucked in the soil beside the Shiva linga. I went near the Shiva linga and suddenly pulled up the trishula and it came out from the soil. I took it in my hand and said that I’ll carry it to my home. Despite my father’s repeated restrain I was adamant. After a lot of cajoling and saying that Lord Shiva will be very annoyed on me I was convinced by my father to replace the trishula beside the Shiva linga in it’s original position.

I used to draw Shiva linga and trishulas a lot in my black board with the help of chalks. Once one of my maternal aunts and one of my maternal aunt’s husband gifted me a small model of trishula made of silver and a laminated photograph of Lord Shiva having a stand at the back of it respectively. I still treasured the things. ‘Shaktimaan’ and ‘Om Namah Shivaya’ imbibed in me the good habit of meditation. I often meditated. Meditation benefitted me a lot. Meditation helped me by increasing my self-confidence and concentration power up to great heights.

Once my parents and I visited Mumbai and there I bought a Mace (Gada). The Mace was made of cane and it was fully covered with golden coloured glossy aluminium sheets. It was looking very attractive. During that time Mace became very popular among the children. The ‘Jai Hanuman’ show in Doordarshan made it popular. Children also bought Shaktimaan costumes and wore them in ‘go as you like’ competitions in schools. So one can easily make out what a huge impact the serials of Doordarshan created in the minds of the people where children were no exceptions.

Many of the international Cricket matches were telecasted by Doordarshan and avid fans used to remain seated tight in front of their television and witness the events. This used to be a topic for discussion for the next few days among the fans.
Today there are innumerable channels which run innumerable shows and programmes but there are scarcities of good quality programmes which can create an everlasting impact in the viewer’s mind. No doubt channels like Zee TV, Star Plus, Sony TV etc has brought manifold entertainment for the public but the power to unite people and family members has disappeared. Doordarshan increased brotherhood, family bondings. It spread awareness and the pride to be an Indian. The thrill which one had while watching Doordarshan programmes has got vanished for good.