Sunday Ritual - Doordarshan Time..!

In the 90's, growing up was uncomplicated and active! 

We had mud on clothes, scratches worn as war  medals, anticipating cousins' visits, waiting for holidays to go to nani-house, calling from the round-dial telephones and much more. 

One vivid memory, etched for eternity, is fine tuning the old television set manually to smooth out wrinkles of Doordarshan Channel!

Elders fondly recollect shows like Hum Log, Karamchand, Mungerilal ke haseen sapne, News, Surabhi etc while we have great memories of Shaktimaan, Alif Laila, Ramayana,Shri Krishna etc.

School time discussions centered around shaktimaan and emulating his spinning action. Andhera kayam rahe! 

Discussions at home revolved around renuka shahane's hairstyle and signature namaste. 

Mythological gyaan was duly enriched by Ramanand sagar's Shri Krishna and Ramayana. 

BR Chopra's Mahabharata! 

Every 90's kid will at least have a vague outline along with protagonists names and characters of the 2 legendary works, Ramayana and Mahabharata.

A typical sunday morning scene featured gulping a glass of milk in front of the TV screen, while mom screamed "peeche baitho, aankhen kharab ho jaayegi"! 

Grandma literally used to worship Lord Rama on TV when Ramayana used to be telecasted. 

Lord Krishna seemed to be manifested in Nitish Bharadwaj ( the actor).

Mahabharata and Ramayana war scenes (arrows flying, thunderstorms etc) introduced the concept of graphics and VFX, albeit in nascent stage. 

Alif Laila took us to exotic lands of djinns,chudails and treasure hunts.  Show me a single person who isn't fascinated with such stories! 

Who can forget the multi coloured vertical lines before the start of any show or in case of "inconvenience is regretted"! 

 Such was the massive following and power of visuals.

Sacrosanct time for the entire family. Congregate on your assigned seats and watch TV. No fighting over remotes ( there weren't any!) or having a plethora of channels to choose from. Just one and only one, Doordarshan! 

This blog post is inspired from Indispire topic on Indiblogger. 

Tumhara naam kya hai, Basanti?

Few friends met up for a casual dinner. 
One of them bought along his cousin, who had just shifted to the city. 
Quickly the introductions took place. His epic reply  stunned everyone, eventually dissolving into peals of laughter!

" hello everyone, my name is avinash dutta. Mom and dad had named me after consulting my horoscope letter but they keep calling me beta or Sonu. 

My friends call me avi. Teachers refer to me as dutta.  My girlfriend calls me by tons of name depending on her mood. I go from mera baby, jaanu,honey, jaan till kutte. Maid and society watchmen address me as bhaiyya. Kids call out to me as uncle.I sometimes feel am avu, simple and sweet.  Hence please feel to call me whatever you wish!" 

His reply perfectly summarises what name means to various people in different contexts. 

Our brain cells guide us in selecting a name for a newborn. Many algorithms, such as the name should have a good meaning, it's short form shouldn't change the intrinsic meaning, the letter as per the
horoscope/birth chart has to be used; determines it finally. 

Indian parents love rhyming names for their children. Example : my name is anushree and my sister is addressed as tanushree! Talk about being lazy, rather than smart!

These are good for the official paperworks and Ids. Half of the time, you are called anything, but your real name! 

Nick names are called by our family and friends,lovingly. They can either be short form of the real name or something very different! 

Friends have a uncanny knack of bestowing the creepiest,funniest and whackiest of names.

Your character traits, your physical traits, social traits, sometimes no reason whatsoever etc help them to name you! 
Example : My best buddies call me teddy bear, chudail and moti murgi! 

Best ones are when little kids call you. Its like they have internal antennas to gauge you and your age. 
Looking young and smart? then its Bhaiyya! 
Having a bad day? its Uncle time! 

Its creeped me out when after my wedding, i met few kids ( the following week of wedding mind you! ) i was instantly addressed as AUNTY! 
did they see my ek chutki sindoor? I was remembering Ekta Kapoor & Hum Paanch serial. Aunty mat kaho na!! 

Household staff, waiters, parlour staff, support personnel etc always address you as bhaiyya or didi! Some enthu cutlets over do it by adding ji to the bhaiyya and bhabhiji to his wife! 

"Madam/Sir" -- Doesn't this give the feeling of sophistication? Thank your office staff and luxury hotel personnel for the sudden elevated feeling :) 

Embarrassing names are reserved for your special someone. 

Imagine, your spouse loudly yells, jaaaanuuuu where are you? in a busy mall.! 

sniggers, here and there, i tell you! 

yes! 

Jaanu, honey, munchkins, cupcake,jaaneman, puppy,shona, mera baby, mera babu etc are common lover names. 

Wait a minute, Awwwwww..... That is cho chweet! :) 


Am sure, you have heard all of the above, sometime during your yatra of life! :) 


This post is inspired by indispire on Indiblogger

Aarambh of Blogging ..

Once upon a time, an astrologer, who coupled up as a face reader,  visited us at home. She was warmly received by   my Matashri, who has a affinity towards consultations. 

Only genuine and trust worthy people make it to my mother's list. This is a side view info :) 

After the chai-paani nashta scenario, Matashri paraded me happily in front of her as the new guinea pig of experiments. 

Source: Google

The lady took my right palm in her hands, turning it left- right and finally zooming on the criss-crossing fate lines.

She prophesied about my many hidden talents, hitherto undiscovered after snippets of what is in store for me. 

I was guffawing to myself about the whole absurdity.

 Let me tell you, this was my first brush with a soothsayer and my jawani ka josh was at its boiling peak, pursuing my graduation year. 

Special advisory, apart from wearing a cat's eye stone, was to pen down anything everyday. A page of writing connected words. 

Bemused, I nodded affirmation and thought of giving it a shot. 

Mind you, this was merely to kill little time while humouring my matashri.

Circa 2008-09, armed with my Sony Vaio,  hostel's wifi connection and newly discovered word, " #blogging ".
Google informed me, it means writing personals journals or anything worthwhile on the World Wide Web. 

Enabling its upcoming application, "Blogspot",I set sail on this journey. I didn't wish to write about my plan of the day!
 So my enlisted crew members, my friends, hoisted lot of topics to write about, aboard. Again, world was round, so my duvidha came to square one. Kya likhu? 

Source: Google

Vishesh tippani - when you study in a Co-Ed college, few harami type friends are bound cross your pathway. 

One of the charlies suggested me to talk about what happens within a girl's hostel. 

Curiosity always charms the cat before it kills it !! 

Done done done...Juicy details of talking under blankets, the conditions of washrooms etc, wormed its way in my post. 

 The first post was so excitedly received that the feedback was given unabashedly over cups of chai and sutta. 

Such a good feeling to get appreciated! 

This was the start of my journey of #blogging

Over the years, topics became little varied. 

Wrote about various kinds of Alcohols, to educate my girlfriends... 
Typed about current mood swings, like why being fat makes people around you judgmental and so on.... That was purely rant blogging. 

Wait a minute,  people still loved it. 

Not bad, at all !! 

Selection of Topics - Kya aur Kyu?

Someone asked me, why do you review movies on Facebook? Answer is simple : I love watching movies. If i can save someone's hard-earned money and time (metropolitan city crowd) by writing unbiasedly, why not?

For a change,  I wrote movie reviews on my blog. Statistics showed me great views scores. My faithful followers from Facebook indeed took the effort of checking my links! 

Did i mention, I am a avid luxury spoilt traveller? 

Travelling all over India and the World has made me see different cultures and customs with more respect. It truly widens your horizons. 

I aint your backpacker type of traveller, but a guilt free luxury seeking person, who loves good hotels and ambience! 


Reading bug crawls all over my body.. I itch to read any romantic stuff and Indian fiction i can lay my hands on! So... it also gets featured on my blog! 


My husband,Ranbir, has been a monumental encouraging force and has resurrected my writing. He feels my writing can help people with their travel plans, books and movie selection. 

Source: Google

Never have felt so Happy !! 

Imagine the power of communicating your views, ideas and experience with your friends and connecting with new friends, thanks to Indiblogger. 

Making them visualise things, just by your descriptive sentences and helping them embark on their own sojourns. 

Reading their encouraging feedback, makes you pat your back,Well done girl! 


This post is inspired by Indispire topic on Indiblogger. #blogging