When we were young, my sister was quite a fan of ‘Chitrahaar’ while my mother must have watched most episodes of ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’.
Looking back I wondered what Mariani, my mother, liked of those serials. I guess she just enjoyed them and so what's there to complain about.
What she didn’t enjoy was me speaking with a Hanuman face all the time trying to imitate people. I was fascinated by the monkey-faced God, perhaps the only central character to feature in both serials and one of the most popular idols in the Hindu pantheon.
My mother & my Hindu neighbors must have given me their Hanuman Chalisas every time I made fun of them.
As I was thinking of it, I felt that I should remember the days of my life, more.
THE GOOD OLD DAYS
During the teenage years, television wasn't the big thing it is today. And we didn't have the Internet, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or WhatsApp. I could go a whole week and not know what was going on out in the world.
If you watched NDTV News Bulletin on Doordarshan at 9:00pm, in under 30 minutes Pranoy Roy would tell you everything going on in the world.
Now, the news is 24/7, and even then, they can't get all of the news out there.
An awesome characteristic of a teenager is that they don't know what they don't know. And what they don't know doesn't interest them at all. Those were the good old days.
Back then, N.E.W.S meant Nothing Ever Worth Seeing. And I lived by that rule - no news, only football, cricket & Hindi films.
LIFE IS A BREAKING NEWS
Today, however, the difference is like the sky and earth. I like to spread on my Ikea sofa and catch up with the news. To catch up with the news is like spilling Ketchup on your shirt while eating a hotdog. It's there, but it disgusts you.
Like always, switching from CNN, BBC and Gulf’s popular Al-Jazeera News every night is my favorite ‘time-pass’. The other day I began watching the news as usual. It went from one story to another, and it was hard to tell the difference between any of them.
It seemed complicated and never-ending like Ramayana & Mahabharata. Just when I wanted to switch to sports, one controversial headline made me spring up and search all the Indian channels for more info.
Murder of Sonali Phogat in Goa – a TikTok star, BJP leader - Haryana actress and politician.
Goa on the International News for a wrong reason other than being a top tourist destination in the world.
Looks like a huge conspiracy ever since the capture of the French serial killer Charles Sobhraj on Goan soil. Be prepared to ‘Ketchup’ more on this in the coming days!