The simplest sights and sounds can evoke thoughts from the past.
If nostalgia could come in little perfume bottles, I would spray a little of it every single day. Forget “special” memories, don’t you enjoy thinking of random episodes from your childhood, casual thoughts that hit you from nowhere?
This still remains Telly Vision, and no, we’re not having any discourse on memories. But give it a deeper thought and you’ll find how the simplest of sights and sounds can evoke thoughts from the past. I was lucky to take a sneak peek into Food Lover’s Guide to the Planet, a show that started last evening on National Geographic Channel, where one of the segments showcased how scientists at a Philadelphia institute were studying the co-relation and the impact of fragrance on flavours.
The show, which will continue every Saturday at 10 pm, will show viewers how aromas of various dishes evoke strong connections and memories. The minute I saw this vignette, I remembered how even today a simple Maggi dish, spread over two bread slices with dollops of butter on top, takes me back to my boarding days, to the hostel “mess” where hundreds of us hungrily slurped noodles.
But it’s not just food that sends these signals to your brain. A number of channels on Indian television are now giving reruns of some of the good ol’ serials that we grew up watching. We waited at 8 pm for Chitrahaar to start every Wednesday and Friday and I came to believe that these two days were “song days” and for anyone who wanted to sing, there could be no better time than these two days of the week. There’s no logic to this, there’s nothing specific or special about this memory, but somehow, while watching a compilation of Hindi film songs on DD channel recently, I remembered this line of reasoning as a child.
In fact, I also came across an episode of Vikram Betaal recently. It was a tacky-looking show that we ardently waited for every Sunday evening at around 5.30-6 pm. My brother and I even sat with the TV set switched on (it could’ve been a black-and-white set since our induction into colour TV was fairly late, but I’m not too sure), grinning stupidly when coloured stripes appeared on the screen, following which the famous DD logo appeared on the telly.
More From This Section
By then we would be squealing in excitement and crunching bowlfuls of Fryums. I loved the signature tune and would go mad singing it for the rest of the evening while also shutting my eyes every time Betaal came on screen because I was, in all seriousness, scared and thought that the make-up was wow, so real and so well-done.
I laughed heartily, astonished at how silly the make-up looked now, when I saw an old episode of Vikram Betaal after almost two decades. Speaking of which, I also saw a marathon re-run of Malgudi Days, that stunning show based on R K Narayan’s novel, last Saturday. I remember, in particular, thinking of how a character, in one of the episodes, cribbed when he won himself a big vehicle, a tractor in a lottery. It was a big vehicle, and why was he sorry, I thought, wondering why my mother was so hopeless at lottery tickets.
Indian television, especially for those of us who remember watching DD in the ’80s, has been a constant companion, bringing families together into their living rooms. Khandaan, Tamas, Buniyaad... the list can go on and memories can linger on too. If you have something to share, write to me and I’ll be happy to include your inputs in my next column. Till then, happy telly watching.
