70s and 80s in India....

[wlg]

My early memories of TV, regional movie on Sat, national movie on Sun, yeh hai zindagi, chayageet, Here's Lucy, Adi Mazban's Avo mera sathi & Tele games

 

[reubensm]

Being from Trivandrum, in those days (we got our first TV Transmitter here when KELTRON built a test TV transmitter and started transmitting in late 1981), we used to use long yagi antennae and pick up Rupavahini TV (from Srilanka). MC60 and MC90 boosters were very popular. Srilanka television used to show a lot of western programming in those days. I remember, the channel numbers were channel 5 and channel 11. Later on, when DD transmitters came up in Trivandrum, they strategically choose the very same channel numbers for us to stop watching Srilanka TV out here. That was the end to that.

I am from eastern part of the country(WB) and those days catching feed from Bangladesh was a craze like anything. People need to get an VHF antenna and a booster to catch the feed.

The craze was fully justified as Bangladesh used to show hollywood movies uninterrupted on daily basis. Also they used to air shows from BBC (if I recall correctly).

 

[wlg]

Since I was in the Merchant Navy, while at Vishkapatnam anchorage we could catch Calcutta, Bangladesh, Mayanmar (NTSC) and Sri Lanka, using a yagi antenna and booster but only during the months from Feb to Apr, and in Mumbai we could get Karachi & Muscat.

 

[reubensm]

News Readers:

Minu Talwar
Thejeshwar Singh (RIP)
Sunit Tandon (current CEO of Lok Sabha TV)
Sashi Kumar (who went on to found Asianet)
Geetanjali Aiyer
Neethi Ravindran
Rini Khanna
Aashish Ray (early news reader, was at the sports desk during Asiad 1982)

Others:

Anupam Gulati (World of Sport)
Dr. Narottam Puri (World of Sport and Sports Quiz)
Tabbassum (Phool khile hai gulshan gulshan)

I also vaguely remember a lot of gazhal programming involving Ghulam Ali and a cute looking lady called Penaz Masani. Also remember for some time on Sunday evenings, there used to be a Runa Laila show sponsored by Nescafe.

I remember the very first time I saw the DD National program on TV in 1982, it was JV Raman and Salma Sultan reading the Hindi news. In those days, we did not have a low power transmitter in Trivandrum but a local electronics company KELTRON, made a 10 watt TV transmitter and used to show a movie every evening from 6PM to 9PM and then used to run the DD National program between 9PM and 10PM. This was during the days of Insat 1A. The national program stopped when Insat IA failed. However by the time DD got a transponder on Intelsat for the 1982 Asian Games, a low power transmitter (100watts) was commissioined in Trivandrum and the KELTRON transmitter was apparently sold to some African country. I vividly remember our father taking us to show us the doordarshan dish and transmission antenna.

Remember National program of Dance, National program of Music and Krishi Darshan. Used to hate these and hence use to wait patiently for these to finish

Lots of memories...lots and lots...

J.V Raman
Shammi Narang
Ved Prakash
Sarala Maheshwari
Mukta
How can anyone forget Show theme,Phool khile hai gulshan gulshan,I even used to watch Krishi darshn on 7:30 PM,few good short films of Films Division Presents and above all "Rukavat ke liye khed hai"(Sorry for the interruption).Good old days.

Regards,
Sachin

 

[reubensm]

I also remember watching the 1982 India-Pak cricket series live, from pakistan. The relay was through microwave and the players looked like shadows on the field. The cricket ball could almost never be seen. Every 10 minutes, we would get the "Sorry for the Interruption" board. The very first time we saw quality cricket broadcasts on TV was during the semifinal and final of the 1983 world cup. The 1985 World Championship of Cricket introduced us to a new world of cricket broadcasts and of course, day-night cricket, coloured clothing and white cricket balls.

 

[sam9s]

Watching tv was funny..Running up to the terrace to tweak the antenna,while your brother shouted from downstairs when to stop turning it :lol:

Hehe yea I remember doing that with my father .....

Sharing some of the totally forgotten rare doordarshan seriels ...

I could not even get these on youtube or any other online search ..... lets see who remembers them ..

1. Cricket with Amarnath . ::: 1980ss :: It featured technique presentation and discussion with guest speakers who were mostly Indian national team members at the time.

It had that very catchy title song ...."Khel Hi hai hamara jeevan,,,,,,, iiski khatir kuch kar jayen ...

2. TARO : Dragon ka beta ::: late 1980s :: Japnese Cartoon became very popular in those days. This one was a classic at that time.

Again had a very sweet title song that goes like ......." Hawa methe tu aaja ... puurab se.....hawa tu aaja re dakshin se."

3. Fairy Tales Theater ::::

I managed to get this on you tube .. (since all are english tv series)

Faerie Tale Theatre - Intro - YouTube

4. Danger Bay :::: Action adventure late 80.

Danger Bay opening titles.mp4 - YouTube


Does anyone remember these .....


5. Street Hawk :::: Action adventure on motorcycle .....

Street Hawk: Intro - YouTube

 

[rud3dawg]

As far as I ve remembered Top 10 things off the top of my head!!

1 Jamie & the magic torch

2. Star trek with Capt James T Kirk & Spok (Was too young to remmebr the details but so annoyed that cartoons wouldnt play for long)

2. Classic Tom n Jerry series flown in from Manilla by an uncle..Kudos : Scott Bradley and Fred Quimby

3. Memory of our first 2 transformer toys used and misused probably a Starscream and Optimus prime.

4. Summer would start with Lemonade preparation in large quantities along with Goodies from Grannies from both sifdes. 1 or 2 Movie cassettes rented from the local AV library (they were called so) and reruns of T&J over and over again

5 1or 2 Comic of Archies every day in summer Vacations.. in late 80s

6. Galli cricket(cricket payed in our lanes ) & Cycling or racing around in lanes (Not many Cars and Bikes in a town that I spent about 6 yrs)

7. Street Hawk ofcourse and also Knight rider along with GI Joe I think in late 80s, remember Donahue used to compete with Oprah then.. in early 90s even

8. Remember getting on to the terrace quite frequently after every heavy gust of wind every couple of months. and especially in monsoons.. and as some 1 had pointed out.. screaming downstairs to check the signal quality

9. For summer vacations 1 month visiting cousins and family friends at least

10. O yeah Fighting for the TVs remote control with the brother... course several times my mom or pops used to snatch the RC away and hurl it to the wall.. (Probably thats how I started learning to fix things and not only destroy em.. hyeah:

In some discussion me and couple of friends concluded that in India at least We the Generations of 70s and 80s would probably have the longest mortality if you consider how healthy we were with loads of Physical activities and reasonably low pollution .

 

[ptanwar]

This one is one of the best mail we get to read in the recent time.. Even though the writer is unknown, kudos to his patience for penning down these old memories..u or me may be born in the late 70's or early 80's, but these memories still hold good ..
Seventy's Middle Class India - Elderly will remember olden days & Youngsters will Laugh
For those who grew up during the 70s in middle class India, here are some things that you can identify with atleast I do!
Some never had a thing and went house to house to
enjoy them.
1. Though you may not publicly own to this, at the age of 12-17 years,you were very proud of your first "Bellbottom" ...

This is from the About section of a group on FB - "That 70s and 80s childhood in India". Its an open group for anyone to join so feel free to visit if you're interested.

Btw: the author (and creator of the group) is a she, not a he.

 

[lakshit]

One of the longest thread I have ever read. Still I enjoyed read every post. I too have fond memories of the time. Summer vaaction was time to take Vetaal (Phantom), mandrake's Indrajaal comics and diamond comics like "Ankur", chacha chaudhari aur Raka and Amitabh bachan (super hero) on hire. And I use to stay awake alone to watch Karamchand and kilye ka rahaysa on our old b/w Weston TV with blue screen cover. Those were the days...

 

[cha_indian]

Good ol days!! We bought a BPL tv just to watch Ramayan serial!! and my father used to create a dark theatre like atmosphere by shutting down the doors, windows, All our nighbours used to come to watch even if they had a TV is because we had a colour TV!! Amongst the gadgets, The gadget that i lusted the most was a National VCR and a Sony Walkman!!!

 

[Yogeshd]

and dont forget "Whats the good word" by Sabrina Merchant ,"Phool khela hai gulshan Gulshan Gulshan " and "The sports Roundup"

 

[gobble]

Did somebody mention Carl Sagan's Cosmos? Absolutely brilliant and slick production that mesmerized us kids every Sunday.

G0bble

 

[Freewheelingypsy]

Can anybody remember the name of a transtel cartoon in old doordarshan where a little mice drop down from sky using an umbrella and then fall into various trouble. I am not able to recollect the name. Anybody here ?

Krtek - The Mole

 

[Nitin K]

News Readers:

Minu Talwar
Thejeshwar Singh (RIP)
Sunit Tandon (current CEO of Lok Sabha TV)
Sashi Kumar (who went on to found Asianet)
Geetanjali Aiyer
Neethi Ravindran
Rini Khanna
Aashish Ray (early news reader, was at the sports desk during Asiad 1982)

Others:

Anupam Gulati (World of Sport)
Dr. Narottam Puri (World of Sport and Sports Quiz)
Tabbassum (Phool khile hai gulshan gulshan)

I also vaguely remember a lot of gazhal programming involving Ghulam Ali and a cute looking lady called Penaz Masani. Also remember for some time on Sunday evenings, there used to be a Runa Laila show sponsored by Nescafe.

I remember the very first time I saw the DD National program on TV in 1982, it was JV Raman and Salma Sultan reading the Hindi news. In those days, we did not have a low power transmitter in Trivandrum but a local electronics company KELTRON, made a 10 watt TV transmitter and used to show a movie every evening from 6PM to 9PM and then used to run the DD National program between 9PM and 10PM. This was during the days of Insat 1A. The national program stopped when Insat IA failed. However by the time DD got a transponder on Intelsat for the 1982 Asian Games, a low power transmitter (100watts) was commissioined in Trivandrum and the KELTRON transmitter was apparently sold to some African country. I vividly remember our father taking us to show us the doordarshan dish and transmission antenna.

Remember National program of Dance, National program of Music and Krishi Darshan. Used to hate these and hence use to wait patiently for these to finish

Lots of memories...lots and lots...

Also remember very good news readers like Gerson Dacunha and Luku Sanyal (Mumbai news) apart from the ones mentioned for english and Salma Sultan in hindi.

They would read the news with so much elegance and grace with a calm composure unlike most of the current ones who yell and gesticulate loudly just to sensationalise an issue like a movie.
Then there was Sports round up with host Fredoon devitre on DD.
Those were indeed the best times for me.