Yeh Dil Maange More

Last night I was surfing Youtube for some good music. I wanted to hear Yanni again. As I keyed in nostalgia, I found this sweet little song which brought back some beautiful memories.



Even today when I look at the surfeit of channels, and the unending silly sagas of saas and bahus and realty shows, I feel the most creative and eminently watchable shows were provided by the Doordarshan.

I remember the first TV that we bought. It was a Bush Baron black and white. No TV ever seemed better! Our house used to transform into a theatre on Wednesdays for the Chitrahaar as all the neighbours gathered and we ended up serving tea and snacks as all settled comfortably. We looked like one happy family.
There used to be some fifty urchins from the nearby hutments, friends of our maid servant’s son perched on the boundary wall and peeping through the window.

The doordarshan was in its infancy and very clumsy. Every few hours we used to see
“ sorry for the interruption” and that too invariable wrong spelt. That brought a lot of mirth.

The jingles were melodious and even the advertisements were a delight. Today we see cricketers advertising almost all products. But I cant see a more delightful one than Kapil Dev’s earthy “ Palmolive da jawaab nahin.” Or “ yeh dil maange more”.

Who can forget the cute Rasna Girl or the Maggie Noodles or Lalitha jee of Surf.

Can any one match the melody of ‘ Mile sur mera tumhara’. Give me a better song on national integration!




I long for serials like Hum Log. You could relate to Lala Haveli Ram and his family in Buniyaad. The Sundays had such amazing serials like different strokes, are you being served and the classic Yes Minister. I may be confusing the days of the transmission though. And then came the mothers of all serials The Ramayana and Mahabharata.

We used to wake up early morning to listen to the melodious signature tune of DD and sleep when she said good night. Even Krishi Darshan was fun.

The news was eminently forgettable though. Those were the times of our desi empress. And the news began and ended with Indira Gandhi. No opposition leader was ever shown for long. I have never seen a more paranoid person than her. The emergency were the black days. The news to be telecast used to be first sent to her notorious son , Sanjay Gandhi and it was shown only after he said yes.

The English media , it seems, still carries the hangover. Look at them fawning over the Italian empress.

I had a joke that we were lucky that Indira Gandhi doesn’t play cricket. Else she would be in the sports page too. Or some day she will come with an umbrella and even read the weather report. It used to be embarrassing to recite this to every visitor who came.
That was my last official joke when I was young. Later I grew and didn’t need any jokes. Life itself became one!

Coming back to the past ,this news time was used to eat dinner. That was the only time that the TV was closed. The whole family ate together sharing the day, joking and laughing. It never was the same again.

I think I owe my discipline a lot to the 9.00 PM News.

Well, that was nostalgia. Not that every thing new is not worthy.

I swear by Youtube.

The You tube is the best thing that happened. Look at the amazing speed with which you can get any news there.

Ex. Dy. PM of Malaysia is being hounded by the current regime. He was allegedly tortured and interrogated but refused to be photographed naked. His retort brought a guffaw in his press conference. He said I don’t trust this regime. Why tomorrow you could see me naked on the Youtube!

What better compliment!