Doordarshan...50 years and Still Going Strong

15th September 2009: As I switched from different channels, the headlines on a news channel caught my eye. "Doordarshan completes 50 years." I instantaneously stopped clicking the buttons on the remote. A person with a very familiar face was being interviewed. After a little while I realised that she was Salma Sultan, a very popular news reader (always with a rose in her hair) on this channel. My mind immediately races back to the past. I remember those days, when, the now famous, "cable tv" did not exist. Those famous serials, like Alif Laila, Ramayan, Mahabharat, School Days, Circus, Jungle Book, Surabhi, Tehekikat etc, seem to have been etched in my mind; The educational programs that used come and still continues to be telecast gave a lot of valuable information; Cricket matches being broadcast on this channel used to be disrupted whenever 'news' came (used to get so bugged for that duration of time); Those children's programs during the summer vacations used to be like some kind of treat for us when we were kids; News being read in all the possible languages that could be received in Hyderabad (Hindi, English, Urdu, Telugu as well as for those who were hearing impaired)
I just seem to be at lack of words about expressing my thoughts and feelings with regards to the memories I have of this channel. Though it dint have the pomp, show and glamour that most of our other present channels have, yet it had its own class. Though in this techno-saavy world, watching television has laid down so may options for us, yet nothing else allows us to remenisense the past the way DD does.
Although there may have been a dip in the number of viewers it has had in the recent past, yet DD is a class apart. On many an occasion, I feel lucky to hav to have seen the "less-technologically-abled-world", to have lived without the cable tv and the cell-phones. Those days had their own charm and there was a differnet kind of a bliss.... 50yrs of Doordarshan's broadcasting have been completed and the going is still good. I wonder if the coming generations would every realise that simplicity which used to exist... Mayb it would not even make any difference to them but am I already pitying the future generations to come??? Not too sure... but maybe I am ;)