TVs while growing up

In years gone by, when we were all growing up in India in the 1980s, do you remember how you saw your TV?  Not everyone had a TV at home.  Only some had it.  And some of us would go to neighbor’s house to watch that odd movie.  Remember?  I am sure everyone would remember the time when your household got their first black & white TV!  Do you remember?  Which TV was it?

I still remember.  Our 1st and only B&W TV was EC TV.  We had just returned from Haridwar when we came home to see this TV that my Dad had bought as a surprise for all of us.  The program that we had on was Krishi Darshan – a program for the farmers.  There were only a few programs that you would get on the TV: Samachar (News) – both in Hindi and English; Chitrahaar (movie songs – MOST popular program); the Sunday movie (do you remember the movie that was always shown during a solar eclipse? for answer look below somewhere); and the Samachar.

The year end New Year’s program was really awaited.  We would all wait to see that program.  And everytime it would be a let down… not even half as exciting as it was made out to be.  I still remember the one where the celebrities came up dressed as someone different – Kiran Bedi had come up dressed up as a village lass.

Which were the TV brand which people bought?

Weston and Beltek were very popular!  ECTV was a government brand whose quality was extremely good!  We bought this both, for B&W and the Color TV (our first color TV).

Salora TV, Oscar TV (?)

The movie shown most (I think all) number of times during a solar eclipse was Chupke Chupke with Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore and Amitabh Bachchan.

Which did you buy?

Great! You’ve successfully signed up.

Welcome back! You've successfully signed in.

You've successfully subscribed to Drishtikone - Online Magazine on Geopolitics and Culture from Indian Perspective.

Success! Check your email for magic link to sign-in.

Success! Your billing info has been updated.

Your billing was not updated.