Mumblings by Ruchika Pandit

While having dinner in the cafeteria, the conversation took a twist and we ended up discussing the old doordarshan serials. The ones we remember and the ones we don’t. It was the time before Zee TV and Star TV came into being. All of us agreed on the point that all these oldies were far more sensible then the crappy sas bahu sagas we are tortured with today. In fact all of us enjoyed watching those soaps. I didn’t watch much TV that time also, but I was able to recall a few names.

My favorite was Malgudi days based on the writings with the same name by R K Narayan. The sketches that used to come in the credit roll were awesome. I can still remember them. And the Taana na taana na na naaa tune is still fresh in my mind! Amazing, I will say.

My other favorite was Jungle book based on the book with same name by Rudyard Kipling. I was so in love with the central character of the cartoon series that I named my newly born brother Mowgli (the name of the boy in the cartoon serial). And I used to like Jageera and Bhaaloo too! So was the madness that I used to wait for the serial every Sunday morning. And mind it, very religiously I used to wait. I used to get up early in the morning, finish my entire daily chore (including homework) and then sit along with my brother in front of TV set and wait for the jungle jungle baat chali hai theme song!

Next come Disney hour. I remember Ballooo from Tailspinand Loui Doui from Duck tales. This one was also my favorite.

Then there was the other sensible and meaningful ones like Udaan. Udaan was considered to be based

on the life of Kiran Bedi. The lead actress Kavita Joshi became really famous after this serial.

And how can one forget the great Mahabharta and Ramayana. I don’t remember much but my mom tells me that people used to leave all their work to watch these serials. The roads used to be all deserted. The shops used to be all closed. One can consider these two serials to be most famous and widely watched in the history of Doordarshan.

There were some others like Sea hawks, Nukkad, Chandrakanta, Chankya, Vyomkesh Bakshi and many more.

There was also a soap called Humlog. This can be considered to be phenomenal in the history of Indian television. I rarely watched it, but then , I have studied about this in my Media history classes and so, I can call it the first ever soap opera on Indian television.

I also remember a serial known as Stone boy. I hardly remember anything about this one but for a small kid. I used to find this one very mysterious. May be because of its theme music.

Any way, I can can go on and on.

The cruxes of the post is- most of Doordarshan serials, if not all, were worth watching and are worth remembering.