When I was in high school, I read a series of articles in a Tamil Weekly in which the author described how various items like TV, bike, fridge, etc. entered into his life and how it changed his and others lives. Right from the time I read those articles, I always wanted to write such a series. Now since I have a platform to write, let me start writing the series.
As I have to recollect from my memory about the events that happened more or less about 20 years ago, there could be some discrepancy in the details. But still, I will try to be as accurate as possible.
Let me start with the first gadget (or electrical item?!?! or electronic item?!?!) that fancied me in my childhood - The TV. I have already mentioned this event many of my other articles, as the moment I recollect this incident, it fills me with the same joy and happiness that I experienced some 23 years ago. I was in my primary school those days.
As usual on a Saturday (in 1987) I was playing with my friends near our home. At around 5:00 in the evening, all my friends ran into a house. Without knowing why they were going, I also followed them and entered into that house. There I saw a TV, a black & white one, and all were waiting for a program to start. I stood near the door, though the owners of the home asked me to come inside. After a moment, a cartoon(which we used to refer to as "bommai padam" in those days) started with the background song "Spiderman, Spiderman, Does whatever a spider can..." and the song went on. In the screen a spider-man was jumping here and there. The cartoon went for about 10 minutes and once it ended and we all came out.
I do not remember how this info reached my parents, probably I would have told them.
My parents told me that I should not go there. But on the next day(Sunday) again at 5:00 PM, I went along with my friends and saw Spiderman. But after that I never went there. But I was not sure whether this was the triggering event, but in after 2 weeks time, we got a brand new TV in our home :-). I came to know that my parents are indeed getting a TV only at the moment when my Dad got down from the auto holding a big box with TV in his hand. Let me go back 1 week behind of that incident. I could sense some strange events happening at home, with Father making frequent visits to the "town". After I grew up I came to know that in those days, we had to book a TV, and wait for its arrival. They will start the manufacturing in the factories only after they receive sufficient bookings. We will be intimated once it arrives in the stores and we had to go and pick it up.
One day an auto came from the road towards our home (should be April 9 or 16, 1987, a Thursday). In those days, seeing an auto in our Railway colony was a rare event and it always signalled the happening of some unusual event. From the road, the auto has to come a distance of about 150 feet to reach our home. By the time, the auto reached our home, a small crowd gathered and they were eagerly looking inside the auto and some where whispering "TV, TV". Our Dad and his friend were there inside the auto. Dad got down with the TV box. A big iron rod was tied to the side of the auto. It was removed by the combained effort of Dad, his friend and the auto driver. Later came to know that it was the antenna. The TV box was brought inside home, and Appa pulled out a beautiful, grey coloured BPL-Ajit 310 Black&White TV out of the box. It was a 20 inch B&W TV, with one big selector knob at the top to change channels and three small knobs at the bottom for adjusting the volume, brightness and contrast. Later I discovered that it also had 2 hidden knobs at the back for controlling horizontal and vertical scrolling. The crowd which gathered in front of our home, by now have entered our home, inside the hall.
Appa, his friend, and a couple of other people - probably Appa's friend's friends(friends of friends in facebook language) were busy assembling the antenna, cutting the cables and connecting it to the boosters. There were 2 boosters, one was the antenna booster and the other was the TV booster. The antenna was fit outside in the chimney, and TV was kept on the stand. Appa switched on the TV after all the wiring was done. As Appa was an electrician, this should have been a piece of cake for him. They did some tweakings, and one person from the roof top was shouting "theriyutha... theriyuthaa..."(is it visible... is it visible...), as he was twisting and rotating the Antenna and Appa from here was replying back. After a short time, we saw a beautiful picture, it was actally a slide showing that the next programme was "Manaimatchi"(An ultimate Mokkai program on Thursday evenings where some people sitting in chairs give some tips, normally useless ones). By now Amma had prepared tea for everyone and served.
Ours was the second TV in our area. When I went outside, an Akka from the first TV home (where i saw spider-man), asked me whether it was Black&White or colour TV. I said it was a colour TV, since I wanted our to be superior to theirs. She was dis-appointed. Next day when Oliyum-Oliyum was going on, she came to our home to confirm the colourness(What an English :-)...) of our TV. The song that was playing at that moment was a Black & White one, which was to indicated by the text "Black&White" displayed at the top right corner of the screen, so that the owners of a colour TV set, need not worry that something had gone wrong with their system... sorry... TV. She waited until the next song and found that it was also playing in Black & White. She gave a glance at me and I could notice the happiness in her face and she ran home happily. But still, I was happy that our TV broke their monopoly in our area.
We kept seeing TV till late in the night and slept, when the telecast jumped from Regional to National(Tamil to Hindi). For the next couple of weeks, we used to watch TV right from its start in the early morning with the Doordharshan's rotating logo, followed by Vande Matharam. We also used to watch the Hindi programs after 9 in the night and sleep by 9:30. I dont know at what time I used to sleep before the arrival of TV. But after its arrival, my sleep time was definitely after 9:30.
During the initial days, we lost some privacy, as whenever we switch on the TV, a crowd gathered in our home, which had an impact on our lunch and dinner times. This crowd continued for a very long time, until TV started entering everyone's home. At the time of MGR's death, we had to skip our meals owing to the large crowd that gathered in our home to watch the live telecast of the happenings.
The TV worked for more than 15 years. It changed my schedule and the way I work. During my school vacations, I watched almost all the programmes telecasted from Delhi in the day time. Some of those were "Hum Panchi Ek Chaal Ke","Dekh Bai Dekh", tuesday afternoon Hindi movies at 3:30. I also somehow got into the habit of watching TV while eating which continues till this day. I dont know whether to be happy or to be sad when my little friend Dhanesh inherited this habit from me. I wrote my homeworks before the 7 o' clock news. Had dinner watching the serials after the news. Studied after the serial got over at 7:30. The Tamil programmes in those days will start at 5:30 in the evening and end by 9:00 in the night.
I had no friends during my school days, since my nature was not compatible with others as I grew up. But still I never felt alone. Because our TV and my hercules caption cycle had taken those roles.
During my 10th class summer vacation, Sun TV started appearing in our neighbouring homes. I discovered that by disconnecting the cable connected to the TV booster and hanging it to a wire above the TV in such a way that the plug connected to the end of the wire contacts the hanging wire, and tuning a bit, Sun TV appeared in our TV, without a cable connection. The signal was actually coming from a nearby cable, running through our roof top. In this manner, by changing the channel and tuning, many other channels could be watched. This actually turned out to be a disaster for our TV and it started giving troubles. The channel selector knob had to be replaced several times, since it was used very frequently, followed by the volume control knob.
Soon, we also got the cable connection and disconnected the antenna and the boosters from the TV. This connection was called the Sun TV connection in those days. After this TV started counting its final days. A sequence of problems followed and one day it gave up. Appa took trips in taking it to service center, and it will lay for weeks together.
At one such time when our TV was in a service center, on a new year day(I think its 2001 january 1st)
parents decided to get a new TV. A Sansui color TV replaced our BPL Black&White TV as the primary TV. This was one of the first color TVs in our area. I looked at awe at the colour image, but for some reason, I still kept remembering the black & white TV and its beautiful images in white, black and grey shades. A couple of days later Appa went and brought the Black & White TV from the service center. But, by now, it lost its importance owing to the colour TV. By now we have changed home and moved to the Disel Colony. Here i got a seperate room, and I took the B&W TV to my room. I split the cable connection into 2 and connected this too to cable and used it to watch HBO movies. But even after that it kept giving problems and one day it finally gave up. The service center person also gave his final verdict that it cannot be repaired anymore.
But I decided to keep the TV with us in home. I had saved it from several occations from selling it in second hand (during its last live days) and also saved it from several occations when attempts were made to scrap it or exchange it for dates. Like the mummies kept in the Egypt's pyramids with the hope that one day they can be brought back alive, I believed that one day I will bring back our TV alive. When we moved to our own home, the TV was kept in the car shed. Once in a while I used to go and take a look at it.
Lot of changes happened in my life in the mean time and once when I went home, the TV was not there. I got to know that it was scrapped by giving it to the preson who collects the old items, probably in return for dates. I couldnt believe that it was no more with us. I was a very sad that the scrapping was done without my knowledge. Had I known of it, I would have never allowed it. I was very sad for the next couple of days.
After that we bought so many TVs, none brought me the happiness that our first Black & White TV brought. At times, once in a while, suddenly I reduce the color in our TV to zero and make it a black & white image and only I know the reason for the smile it brings...
