A yellow round moon, moon starts rotating and some more circles form around it.. a meloncholic music in the background - eenenenenene eeeeeeeeeeee
finally the moon becomes very small and big alphabets form around it and it shows DOOR DARSHAN
this is what I waited for day and night, those days.
whenever the subah, dupaher and shaam ki sabah started, they had to show the moon, the music and then the words - Door-Darshan
My earliest memories of DD is chitrahaar every friday at 8 pm and some funny afternoon programs with women teaching crafts and cookery , not to mention the night serial Buniyaad.
There was also an afternoon serial about a very lower middle class family all huddled up in one house together. Yes, I am talking about Humlog- a family favorite. The chaos was led by Basser-ram and tolerated by the ever-silent lanky wife. Also responsible for chaos was ''dadi'' forever vying for attention and sick.
Nanhe, chutki, kaamiya and other young faces brought some relief later. The life of the show was ''rail gaadi- rail gaadi.... Ashok Kumar'' who surfaced in the end from nowwhere, wearing his dark glasses, belting out some philosophy about the episode. lol !
Despite sad and poor households shown in Humlog and buniyaad, it was a family-reunion in every house watching the serial week after week and discussing it.
Y eh jo hai zindagi was one of the earliest fashionable and comic series going on at that time with '' the then Miss India'' Swaroop Sampat dominating the show.
Commercials those days were cute and simple and deserve a special mention.
-Washing powder nirma showed a small girl with flying white frock and a bunch of Deepikas, Sonu Walias and Sangeetas blushing away washing clothes.
- Who can forget the ''jab mein chota bacha tha... jab roshni hota ... bajaj'' and ''bhulna jana ECE bulb lana'' advertisement.
Time passed, more and more serials started coming up .
The school girls waited for Fauji which was about a young soldier, a bundle of energy, who called himself Abhimanyu Roy. I waited for him as well and went beetroot red each time he came on screen.
But I dont seem to do that anymore when I watch Sharkukh Khan in Kal-ho-na-ho , lol !
Meanwhile, swords were raised and arrows went flying by and met in the middle and after some colorful effects , reached their enemy targets. Yes, I am talking of Ramayan that paved way for mythological serials.
By the time, people were sick of seeing Deepikia chikaliya cry and Aravind Trivedi shout, it was time for another ultimate epic Mahabharat to grace the screen. What followed was familes religiously watching the epic and old grannies and grandpas bowing before Nitesh bharadwaj, the flamboyant Krishna each time he appeared.
When all this was happening, the night time serials were not far behind.
Nukkad a serial about the road side ''people who had golden hearts'' was fast catching up. The girls liked Hari, the women liked Raja- the man in suit . My father liked Khopdi - the drunkard and my mom hated the sight of Ganshu bhikaari.
Sunday morning was children's special with Famous Fives, Kachi Dhoop, Faster-Fenay and what not.
Did I forget to mention the advent of snob-hi society serials then ? It was not like only Sony/Zee introduced hi-society serials. Our doordarshan had its own share of such gems like Khaandan which stared Neena Gupta and Mohan Bhandari and ''Dr Sreeram Lagoo''.
Admist all these entertainment going on, other familiar faces, those days were Salma, Komal GB Singh, Manjari and Meenu who came to read the DD news in rotation.
years passed
Some other new serials cropped up like ''Uddan'', ''Surabhi'', ''Circus'' and ''Manzilen''.
some more years passed
The cable had come by then and people were getting hooked on to Zee TV which started with ''Antakashari'' and a Girish Karnad serial called ''Saara Jahan Hamara''.
Soon more and more serials mushroomed on on Zee like Tara, Banegi apni Baat and many more. And before we knew it , there was more competition in the form of Sony. Sahara TV, B4U, Zee cinema followed suit.
Today...
theres so much to watch and so little time.
serials starting with K have dominated all channels. The houses are no longer poor, the cast is no longer simple and fresh. Everything looks madeup the story, cast, dialogues and costume. The promos can give films a run for money and the stories can put Honey Irani and Pamela chopra to shame.
Today, I watch Jassi and KKusum sometimes. I also watch Hum sab ek hain on Sony and Hasratein- repeat on Zee.
But my memorable days of childhood have disappeared with the DD serials and programs. I cant see the yellow moon nor hear the meloncholic music - eenenen neeeeeeeee anymore.
All I can hear and see are hoplessly snobbish serials like Kitti party or the gayish acting of fashion-designers in Jassi or the Saas-bahu catfight in some K-labeled serial.
My golden era of Doordarshan days are sadly over but will always remain in memory.
