Doordarshan : A balanced diet

Do you remember how special the ‘Sundays’ used to be when we were kids? Lets try to remember what we all used to see on Sundays…

The day used to begin with Rangoli … a program containing only songs..!! Songs for everyone… old ones for mom dad and the new ones for us. That used to be followed by morning news, then Mahabharat or Ramayan or Chanakya …. Or any other mythological or historical serial .. which whole family used to see together ..!! Then we used to have a cartoon film … just try to remember how eagerly we used to wait for it whole week ..!! He-man, jungle book, duck tales …!! Then ‘potliwale baba ki kahani’ ..!! Then we used to have a one hour program by National Geographic Society…. A science based program ! then it used to be the time for Indian music ‘National Integration for Spirit of Unity Concert’ ..!! Then again ‘Chaayaageet’ before lunch time. In the afternoon there used to be a ‘Pradeshik feature film’ where we used to get movies made in other state; basically non-hindi films.

But why to remember all these things when we don’t even see DD National nowadays..!!
If we try to analyse this schedule carefully we will realize one thing that Doordarshan was truly a balanced diet. Balanced diet for our brain, our mind..!! No matter how long one watches the same channel, everyone used to get something….. not only entertainment but also some knowledge…not only about our history but also about mythology, science, music, our culture and life and people of other states….!!

What has changed with facility of cable? We have so many new channels like star tv, star sports, espn, discovery, sony, setmax, zee, national geographic channel, travel and living, aaj-tak, ndtv 24x7, sun tv, HBO, Cartoon Network and many more…. Every channel is good in its own respect. Every channel is trying to give the best they can …. Every channel is trying to be best in this competition ….!! Can we see Doordarshan anywhere in this competition?

But what is the change that has occurred with so many channels? Grandfathers and dads keep on seeing news channels day and night, children stick to cartoon network, youth can’t leave HBO and grannies and moms can’t live without family dramas..!! Everyone is happy because everyone is getting what he/she needs ..!! Where’s is the problem then ..?

Let’s analyse one’s physical growth and try and relate it to the case above…….. There’s a child who likes ice-cream so it keeps on having ice-cream day and night…!! When it grows, it starts liking veg Manchurian … so it starts having veg Manchurian day and night ….for several years..!! Then it reaches the age when it develops the taste for fried rice …. Then what? …fried rice for several years …day and night …!! And thus the cycle continues with different dishes in same pattern…!! Now imagine that child…may be 30year old now…… what kind of physical growth we expect him to have? So now, we might say that if he would have got all the kind of food, he might have had a better health by now…!!

Won’t it happen with our brains also? 24 hour cartoon network for children, 24 hour movies for youth, 24 hour family dramas for ladies, 24hour news for oldies, everything 24hours unlimited…!! Now what kind of growth our brains are supposed to have?

What we have started loosing is ‘contol’ …!! Just because we have everything available 24hours we just don’t realize how much we have had …and what is lacking? Earlier even Doordarshan used to sleep during nights … but these 24hour program facility has literally disturbed our biological cycle…!! We just keep on watching HBO and may be at 2.30 or 4.00 am we realize that it’s a time to sleep ..!! Even if we watch the news channel, what we get is the same news repeated after one hour. And if we really try to think logically, what really happens every second that can be shown as news? And to be more logical, what difference does David Beckham-Victoria love affair makes in our lives? And just remember the amount importance does these news channels give it to …!! Earlier we used to wait for a week; that’s 24x7=168 hours for just a one hour cartoon and just try to remember how much we used to enjoy that one hour..! Same thing used to be with ‘The World This Week’..!! Now everything is made easy, just change the channel we get to see whatever we want..!! Is it good or bad ...that one has to analyse by himself, for himself …!! The idea behind this article is not to promote Doordarshan but the idea behind Doordarshan..!! Children know Harry Potter but they don’t know who was Arjun, Duryodhan, Raja Akbar ..!! Children know Michael Jackson, Madona but don’t know Pandit Bheemsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraaj…!! Children know Saint Valentine but don’t know Saint Gyaneshwar, Meerabai…!! Children know Teacher’s Day but don’t know Guru-pornima ..!! All these children which are going to be the youth of India after few years, what knowledge and what culture are they going to handover to our next generation?

If we try to analyse Doordarshan in comparison to other channels, we will realize that Doordarshan in loosing its audience mainly because of its appearance. The kind of graphics it has and the way it presents itself. The quality of programs may also be lacking somewhere but what how good those family dramas could be?

Just for a day do one experiment. Forget the attractive graphics of all the channels. Open the newspaper, read the schedule of all the channels and then prepare your own schedule for the day …. And do see to it that you do get the balanced diet and do enjoy your day watching TV…… exactly the way we used to enjoy our Sundays 10 years back …!!