Idiot Box?

Television, branded as an Idiot Box, more out of the contents and number of hours spent with it some years ago, is an interesting invention. There were days, some decades ago, when people were proud to be having a Radio at home and keep glued to it hearing running commentaries on important occasions. Then came the transistors, which was viewed suspiciously when it was spewing the same news and songs without any wired connections. I could vividly recollect days when our young boys group used to surround a radio giving running commentaries on cricket matches particularly during Pongal holidays , when India will be playing against visiting cricket teams in Chennai, then Madras. The voice of Ananda Rao commenting " As he comes in and bowls to Pataudi, he gently attempts to glance and misses which is collected by the wicket keeper....". In between critical deliveries, there will be a bout of static disturbances which will drown the voice and that will be the most dreaded moment of the match, as Replays were not in vogue those days !

In such medieval ages, Television was an innovative piece never even dreamed of at Chennai. I could recollect the introduction of TV in Chennai on the 15th August of 1975, when we were unfortunate to look at the assassination of the then Prime Minister of Bangla Desh , Mujibur Rahman. I watched along with a huge crowd outside a retail shop selling TVs and we were all so fascinated by TV that the sadness of the news was lost. Even in 2010, I can still see the crowd outside retail shops but this time they were more fascinated by Cricket than the TV!.

In those days, rather years, the programmes were tightly controlled and had a mixture of News, dramas, film songs and very little serials. After 9 PM , the TV will be hijacked by serials, programmes in Hindi when half the population will turn the set off, sheerly due to the lack of language awareness than any other reasons. In between the programme Managers would squeeze in 45 minutes for regional songs on Fridays and one should see to believe the excitement that this will create. The whole of population will wait throughout the week for this 45 minutes programme ! I had the genius to derive the better of this situation when I figured out that this is the best time to visit doctors and dentists when there will be no patients and even the roads would at times be deserted !! The Sunday evenings will be occupied by Tamil movies and the households will be waiting very patiently for this programme and all lights will be switched off to give a theatrical effect !

Some of my early memories with this box are:

• Going to the co-owner's house to see the song and dance with my friend
• India Vs West Indies cricket match at the opposite school. Someone had a business acumen to collect one rupee  and the school hall was full. Bedi spun the Windies out of the match and we all felt the amount was worth !

The frustrated audience in its appetite for a more and variety of programmes than the 30 minutes of song and dance and weekly films, branded this great invention as Idiot box and they were overjoyed when one more channel was introduced. Then came the cable TV concept which gave the audience a handful of regional channels with filmy programmes at all times. This was the day when the viewership of India turned firmly on its head. The recent decade saw a flurry of television brands with more than a handful of channels, a La Carte programmes and it is now mind boggling to receive 200+ channels 24 by 7. This facility has given me the luxury of watching some programmes of my choice even at 3 AM, on some days. The current bouquet offers such varieties in science, fictions, music, sports , news, religion etc., that TV has become a very active companion for those who could afford to spend sometime with it.

I am prompted to post this when I happened to spend some of these channels in the recent months and I am really thrilled that we have so much to look forward to. Some of the programmes I happened to see were very informative and also thought provoking. I am amazed at the improvements that have been made and easily we can categorize that TV and Internet are two of the inventions that have changed the world in terms of content, communication, knowledge spread, entertainment etc.,

As we used to hear , beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, TV is also a media that has to be carefully devoured by the viewer. I am sure there are more good to it than the bad that was seen in those days. I strongly feel that it is time that this branding of " Idiot Box" needs to be revisited.