I grew up in a joint family, during my initial years. We had three tvs, one was a big color tv, that was in the living room of our house, an uncle of mine had another one, a tad bit smaller color tv, but with a remote, and my parents had a smaller black and white tv in our room, one that came with knobs. All three tv sets had one thing in common, they had only two channels that aired. That seemed to be enough back then.
Occasionally we would rent a vcr, and watch one of the recently released movies. Every Sunday morning we would all sit infront of the big color tv in the living room, and watch a few of those shows, that every Indian family used to watch on Sunday mornings. Mind you, the younger ones like us never had a say in what was to be seen, nor that it really registered to us.
In those days, when we used to have our summer holidays, it was always the same place we went to, my mom's hometown. Year after year, the same trip, two nights worth of train journey, followed by atleast ten days of the most amazing time with cousins from my mother's side, who like me used to come down there every summer for their vacations. There too the story was same, a couple of black and white tv sets, with knobs, and the same two channels. But the place had an upside, it had a cinema right next to it. And me and an elder cousin sister of mine used to have free access to last row seats now n then, courtesy of the usher to whom we were like nieces and nephews.
One such summer, we left my home town, and kicked off the vacation on a familiar note - two nights of train journey, followed by a 3 hour long car drive, to my mom's native. There used to be these vast mango troves outside my mom's native, through which the car took us and finally dropped us in front of the house. This time too I was greeted with the same black and white tv with knobs, but there was something different about it. It didn't just air those two channels anymore. My uncle had installed something called 'a cable connection'. It was like this treasure box of channels, all i had to do was turn the knob and the picture on the screen fluttered to something else entirely. No more static hissing, no more day long boring programs, no more of those two channels. There were channels that played music all day long, channels that kept playing movies one after the other, channels with just cartoons in them!!!
That summer, we hardly ever went to the cinema next door. The mango troves outside the house remained unexplored. The early morning ritual of visiting the market with my uncle became a rare occurrence. We were glued to the tv for as long as I can remember. Amidst all these new shows, I Dream of Jeannie, was my favourite. It simply cracked me up. I remember it used to come at 9 in the morning and was repeated at 7:30 in the evening and I made sure to catch it both times. My cousins meanwhile, used to go gaga over these early versions of reality shows that were just on the cusp of their infancy. It was a summer love affair for us, with these channels, with this new way of tv, and of course for me, with Jeannie. The whole vacation passed in the blink of an eye, and before we could register, it was already the day before, I was supposed to leave.
Memory is a strange thing, isn't it. There are certain times in our life that stay imprinted in our conciousness, even though they might not seem so significant. I remember the last day of the vacation so vividly, that I can still close my eyes and be there again. I was sitting on the edge of the bed, facing the tv, and I Dream of Jeannie was on. I was engrossed in it, but I wasn't quite enjoying it that day. The blues of leaving that night had already started haunting me. My dad was on the landline next to the table, talking to his brother, sharing the train details of our departure. He then asked me to take the phone, it was one of my elder cousins who wanted to talk to me. I dragged myself to the phone and placed the receiver next to my ear.
My elder cousin sister was on the other end of the line and she was exhilarated.
"Guess what happened while you were gone", she squeaked. "What did happen", my slow monotonous voice droned. "You won't believe it. We have gotten something called skyview two days back, it's a cable connection. They are giving out 99 channels, Sony, Zee, Cartoon Network and so much more. We can also call them and request them to play a movie and they will. We don't even have to rent a vcr for that now. And there's this show that we all watch every Sunday morning now. It's on Sony. You will love it. It's called 'I Dream of Jeanie.'". I was listening to her voice, with this ear to ear grin pasted on my face, while i overlooked the tv, just when Jeannie in her signature style folded her hands, and winked.
