Nostalgia of Learning -- 1980 s Watching the 9 PM News on DD
The news of Gitanjali Aiyar
Newsreader Doordarshan passing away took
me back ages –
Those were the days , when
entertainment through Televisions were sparce – In fact Telecasts itself would
commence in the evening by 6 and probably run for a couple of hours. And I do
not want to talk about the topics that were telecast.. They would interest no
one but the TV set would be on. What was
of great interest to many of us was the English News at 9 PM everyday that
would run for 30 minutes and the personalities that hosted it. They were
supremos in their own right and had lot of influence doing what they did
Watching the news was a Big
education -- it is like watching the Learning videos of today
Our teachers encouraged us to
watch the News for two things :
- Get our Pronunciation right and watch the flow
- Improve our Current Affairs Knowledge
- And we were warned not to watch any other program since they could be diversions to our academic pursuit.. There was nothing of any great interest but the warning was like a statuory one !
The news was probably one of
the fastest ways to get updated on the day’s happenings. Else you had to wait
for the newspaper next day. So most of us watched it as a regular habit .. We
did improve our language skills in a big way as we tuned in regularly to the
news. Since English was not spoken on a frequent basis at the school as a
communication language , it was important for people like me to use this as a
learning tool to improve. And getting to
know what is happening was also important.
Some of my favorite news readers
in DD were Minu Talwar , Tejeshwar Singh , of Course Gitanjali Aiyar , Komal G
B Singh , Neethi Ravindran , Sashikumar, Ramu Damodaran , Rini Simon. Each of
them had their own style of delivery and
they were around for a long period of time… the bet in the house where all of us tuned in
, would be on who would Host the news for the day ? Small bets but cherishable
and simple bets.. And when the person who you guessed came on , you won a
lottery--- that was the happiness those days – Simple and easy
Gen X’s : Are you able to recollect and relive what is am talking about ?
Comments
Yes, bets were on both for Hindi and English readers.
When Rini Simon became Rini Khanna......it was little disappointment though ;) ;)
Saroj Narayanaswami Kural ketkatha m oru Tea Kadai kooda kedaiyathu - Such a voice she had and it was heard all over TN-- She passed away Aug of 2022