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Monday, October 12, 2009 22:42 IST

Those were the good old days. Dad would listen to his Murphy radio for a staple diet of news every day and night. And the entire family would crowd around the huge set on Saturday nights, for All India Radio's Saturday Date.

Then TV came. Dad always wanted to buy a black and white set, but he never did.

So, about 20 to 30 of us, all children from chawls, would go to a neighbouring building, where a rich Gujarati family lived, and packed their living room floor every night, watching TV.

We would finish our lessons (homework) by 8pm, as soon after that, the interesting shows began. There were no tuitions those days, of course.

So, every weeknight it would be Hum Log. On Sunday mornings, after Sunday Mass, there would be entertaining serials (some foreign), and in the evenings it would be Hindi movie time. Those were the days of Doordarshan.

My first encounter with MTV was when I was with Mid-day. My early morning shifts were incomplete without listening to and watching old, romantic English hits, in black and white, in office. I was obsessed with the channel. In fact, Mid-day bossman Tariq Ansari used to call me MTV Danto.

There were no frills. No gimmicks. It was pure music. Pure entertainment. It was truly MTV Enjoy!

In 2007, the tagline changed to 'It's My MTV!' And, soon, it was not my MTV!

Channel [V] came along. VH1 came along. Bollywood songs came along. But they were not the same.

Now, there's news that MTV is in for a change this Diwali. I hope I get back my MTV!

2 comments

Can totally relate to the "My MTV" thing... used to religiously watch MTV late in the night to catch the Unplugged show. VH1 seems to be the only channel which plays some good music. Rest are all just feeding the audiences with reality ****. Really hoping for MTV to go back to its original self and play some music.

Very true!

Very true... I miss those days too. This channel once pumped my interest in Western music. I used to watch lots of them... but these days, whenever I scan through this channel I stumble upon those not so related to the channel's name(Music TV), reality shows have only the music of beeps, as mostly all are spitting garbage out of their mouths. Feels sorry to even call it "MTV" :( Let's hope for the good. :)

:)