Calling the Shots !


Dusting the old wardrobe, being not one of the chores, was taken up as a high priority task after the procrastination reached its highest indices. Sniffing and cursing I ventured at the not so interesting job. The initial energy works as a negative exponential and I sat down after few minutes hopeless, looking at the created mess. Suddenly the eyes found a small white thing which was almost yellow showing its endurance or effect of time. An age old photograph, black and white, almost tattered and screaming by itself that its going to be an antique soon. The thoughts suddenly placed themselves into the comfortable past, making me to wonder as how they would have taken pictures in those ages. The uncanny looking huge stand, black mysterious cloth inside which the photographer buried his head, the larger than life artificial settings in the backdrop which could place you anywhere in the world and in any position. The postman could sit in the latest of the cars, the whole family suddenly misplaced in time and standing amidst the lush green verdant nature, the aspiring artistes next to their role models and the list can be populated depending on the depth the human creativity can penetrate.
An era passed. The camera with the films made its entry. Everyone was amazed. The harbinger to the present day’s ultra tech sleek lenses. But still you had the limited privilege to take few thought -to -be perfect photos. You take it to the studio and you cant wait to see the results. The dark room with the red light and the liquid cleaning gives a chill to your nerves. As often depicted in the movies , that the pictures finally will have some strange element in it hanging. The photographs finally land up in your hands. You are divinely pleased with some of them and you keep seeing it, without leaving its negative counterpart too. You want to make sure that the contrast is as beautiful as the original.
With this you entered the age where the cameras are found anywhere and everywhere. All sort of lenses, focal lengths and pixels and you are spoilt for choices. The shutters are faster than the blink of an eye. Everyone is a claimed photographer now clicking everything around and flaunting it. Ofcourse we are all happy and liking it. You can create the one picture in all spectrum of colours, make things visible or invisible, cut, chop,crop and what not.The technology has no backtrack and only has to advance and get better. Suddenly when I am writing all this and making such big claims,I realized that my mind and heart still yearns for the old pictures. The hard copies which we used to ceremoniously put in the decorated album and flipping through the pages with your kith and kins gave the joy which cant be surpassed. Something told me that the best of today’s bling flashy and clear photographs also cant equate it. At that moment, the old black and white picture stood vindicated ! SAY CHEESE !

Whatever happened to the good old Doordarshan..?

An easy-going Sunday evening, light is the heart sipping hot tea and the fingers proving their nimbleness in switching between the zillion channels. Your mind asks for more, not settling at any frequency, you continue the wasteful task, proving every now and then the fickleness and restlessness of mind and heart. With a stroke of luck, something finally seems appealing. You hang on to it, just to find in a few minutes that you are back to square one. At once, you realize, fewer choice is way better than overabundance. Overcome by nostalgia, I set out to be lost in those days when TV was synonymous with Doordarshan.
The whole family sat together to watch one program in one channel. Your mind is happy with stability. The programs void of their pomposity, was easy to comprehend. No all pervading reality shows, no always painted characters of saas-bahu serials, no 30 min duration Ads. Simple as it was, it used to cater to all strata of society. A beautiful medley of Knowledge, Entertainment, Real news, Sports. It does have the onus of not portraying the flamboyancy of everything . Pristine, simple and unaltered and the Ads upholding the social issues .But it cant rule the roost today. The cons outweigh the pros. Its difficult to stand out amidst the flashy extravagant things.
Today, every channel has a leverage over the traditional channel. Everything, shown in its bits and pieces make it more attractive and over informative. Watching the famous movie on your couch, singing to the tune of the popular song , getting the adrenaline rush of driving the F1 cars , going on a time machine to the alien space and improving your knowledge base seeing the debate and drama and you ask for more. We do know what colour dress a particular actress wore yesterday , we do know who sings well in the talent show, we do know which football star presented what gift to his gal and ofcourse as who is the substitute of the popular character in the daily soap!! Not to mention, that we are well versed as what brand to buy amidst the huge confusing merchandise (or so we believe)!A sign of technological progress and its disasters. Each channel is the epitome of what it stands for. So far, so good. But somewhere deep inside, I know that I still would opt in for the Jungle Book than the best of Cartoon Network shows, I still would go for Tu Tu Mein Mein than the best of comedy shows, I still would like to hum to the beats of Burman songs in Rangoli than the unlimited masala songs in the pink channel.Be it Malgudi Days, Alif Laila or Chandrakanta, most of it were first of its kind.India truly meant a lot more in Surabhi and Science in Turning Point. Sometimes, Old is not just gold, its Diamond and even more !