Is it really an Idiot Box?

People say that television in our country has progressed a lot. From the time when you choice on T.V. meant only 2 channels to the emergence of cable with channels like Zee T.V. , Star Plus, Sony to the situation now when you have more than a hundred channels. The channels have become so large that the sector has long been categorized into sub segments such as News channels, Sports channels, etc.

Despite all this, these days, I seriously find a dearth of options to spend my T.V. viewing time on. Though, part of the reason for this is my being on and off in terms of the viewing, yet my feelings have been reciprocated by even avid watchers. It happens a lot that I just switch on the T.V. only to realize that I again could not find even a single channel with a decent offering on which I could spend my time.

I remember a time when my day’s schedule was determined by what was being shown at what time on the T.V. – more so during school holidays and only somewhat less when the school was open. At that time the choice of channels was much less but the same channels came in handy with multiple shows that could be watched. During the holidays, I woke up at a time when a particular cartoon series / kids show was to begin – say 8:00am in the morning. My mother woke me up saying that its 8 and I used to get up fast and switch on the T.V. The daily chores (brushing your teeth etc.) used to happen in the commercial breaks. A good 1.5-2 hours were spent playing hide and seek with the shows and by 10:00am, I used to be done with everything including breakfast without missing any scene of any show – talk about multitasking, eh?

At about 11:00 or 11:30 there again used to be a good comic or detective series to watch after which my father used to come home for lunch. He used to watch the business channel (after those were launched) and before he used to watch the news channels. I never used to eat any meal without sitting in front of the T.V. Even during exam time, my meal used to happen in that 30-minute slot in which there was a program to watch. During school days, I used to come home at around 1:30 and there was one particular comedy series which ran at that particular time slot – perfect watch for a good lunch.

This habit has stayed with me. In my institute, all the students eat in the Food Mess. There are two areas in which one can do his/her meal – one with a set of T.V.s and the other without. To me that is the distinguishing factor and am not sure from which angle the other students look at them differently. As you would have guessed, I always sit in the area with the T.V. sets, irrespective of the amount of rush in that area.

Coming back, in the afternoons there were movies on the cable channels – some at 2:00, others at 2:30. I always used to see the names of those so that I would not repent on missing out a good one. If the movie was found interesting, another 2.5-3 hours went in front of the T.V. – though I admit that used to happen rarely. The evening was time to go outside and play with friends and by the time you are back, there is ample content on T.V. available – the prime slot.

You might be wondering about my T.V. habits and where did the study time go? I sincerely believe that if a person genuinely wants to do anything, he/she can extract some time for it, even from the busiest of schedules. More often than not, blaming things on unavailability of time just shows the lack of effort. Studies and all other stuff were managed effectively in a manner so as not to miss anything worthwhile to watch on T.V.

I agree that at that time there was much kids stuff which constituted a big part of the package of the things I watched, all of which I might not like to view today. Even then, I am sure that, had the current channels / shows been available then, my T.V. viewing would have reduced significantly. That way it may have been for the better (am not saying that I regret watching so much television, else I would not have written this post).