I miss that small wooden box of memory

I still reminisce about the grating of metal rollers against the old wooden frame. I still remember the loud click. I still have memories of the flickering images that came alive in black and white, etched in my mind.

I still remember the moment when I sat on the couch at my neighbour Shah Auntie’s home in Nainital, as the TV was switched on. A small but magical world came alive for me, when that wooden box became a kaleidoscope through which I peered into worlds I had never seen before.

When Malcom Marshall started his run-up to bowl to Srikkanth, my twin brother Shailesh and I were transported to the stadium on a wintry day. When Jasoos Karamchand investigated a case and snapped at his chatty secretary Kitty, we smiled and felt bad for her. When Lajoji wept in Buniyaad, we had a lump in our throat. When Chitrahaar stopped at the fifth song, we craved for one more.

It was the Doordarshan era, an era that shaped lives of millions of Indians. As India’s pre-eminent communicator, Doordarshan reflected the moral bearings of a nation steeped in centuries old culture. Its broadcasting was not just entertainment, it had a sense of right and wrong, a sense of responsibility towards the audiences it was creating content for.

Then, one day, as I added up to open the batting for my Charminar Club at the Government  Girls’ Inter College grounds in Nainital, a friend of mine told me that a new form of TV was about to come to Nainital. It was called Cable TV and one could watch many more channels.

For me, it was the moment when India began to change, the moment when the Doordarshan era ended. Soon we were watching something new called Zee TV. There was Antakshari and Hum Paanch, there was Tara and later Sa Re Ga Ma Pa …
Zee TV came riding on a huge opportunity – and a huge responsibility. While it was opening up glitzy, sparkling new worlds to millions of viewers – and millions more who were buying new TV sets each year – it also had to live up to the richness of content of Doordarshan.

The pioneer of Satellite TV, that was much superior and entertaining, lived up to its responsibility well, and it straddled two worlds. Its strength has been that it is rooted and in sync with the emotional depth of the real India even as it looks at the country through a contemporary prism. The 20th anniversary of ZEE is important not just for the company but a key landmark for India’s communication, especially as we enter the age where the TV screen is shrinking into the mobile phone.

The challenges though, remain the same.
As I discovered during my journey of the last two years as a radio storyteller and the head of a content company, you can serve it as much gimmickry as you want, but in the end this country craves for innovative content – which often boils down to simple, old fashioned storytelling, with its roots in Indian emotions, joys, pain and drama.

ZEE is the pioneer of constantly evolving journey of content in India, and I hope the next 20 years will witness new and exciting innovations in content and programming concepts from its stable, because as a viewer, I want to remain excited about the world of TV, just like I used to be as a child.

Because I still remember the grating of metal rollers against the old wooden frame. I still remember the loud click. I still remember the flickering images that came alive in black and white.

(Neelesh Misra is a Bollywood scriptwriter/lyricist, radio storyteller, author, Founder and CEO of Content Project and Editorial Director, Gaon Connection rural newspaper)