Home is where Television is?

Look what new things I learnt just this past week watching TV.

The scientists now believe that the true purpose of sleep may be to rerun the maze of the problems that one faced that day and try to find a solution to the problem. So there may be some truth to the saying 'sleeping on a problem'.

The ground was broken for The Pentagon on September 11, 1941.

The DNA of a criminal was extracted from a wall 7 years after the wall has been re-painted. And he was caught

I am not saying I couldn't have learnt these things in any other way. It's not like I started the evening wanting to learn what sleep is or when building The Pentagon started. I could have easily logged on to wikipedia and probably would have ended up knowing more than I ever wanted on each topic. But I did it in between eating dinner and wallowing on my couch. The thing with TV is you are just watching your favorite show and then comes that ever annoying commercial break. You just meddle the remote control to see what else is going on and then these things hit you. Some of them stick some don't. Watching a whole season of UEFA Champion's league or South Park or Formula One or Daily Show is one thing. But watching Science or History Channel or PBS or NGC or 'nothing News' for few minutes here and there and to see what new things you learn about the World...its the Magic of TV!

You know, I have a little bit of history with TV like most others of my age from India. TV became a affordable commodity just as I was growing up. I vaguely remember the time where Radio and Cassette player were the main sources of entertainment. My family bought our first TV when I was 8 years old. After 2 years of watching TV in our national language that I didn't understand then, I was sent off to a residential school where 2-3 hour 'TV Shows' were the high-points of the weekends. It was like sanctioning our fundamental rights as a citizen of socialist India to watch the state-run crappy TV.

By time I finished first year of school and come home for Summer/Winter vacations, people on TV could actually speak my regional language. 'Spiderman' was right after a wild animals show (documentaries mostly set in African plains). 'He-man and Masters of the Universe' was right before the Indian epic 'Ramayana'. Saturday evening - a movie in my regional language, Sunday evening - a movie in the national language and on Sunday afternoon a movie in God-Knows-What-Language (apparently, a award winning movie which no child could ever understand). People eagerly waited to watch the movie songs once week in 'Chitrahaar'. Major news broadcast was once-a-day in three different Languages, English news was after Hindi news and everyone seemed to know the names of all the news readers. When one of the news readers was off air for 3 months everyone knew she was on Maternity leave and they even knew what baby she had when she came back.

Malgudi Days and its unforgettable title song got etched into every child's mind. The synopsis of Sunday's Mahabharata was published in Friday's newspapers. There were TV programs all day long. Soon after, a VHS player makes its own place right next to the TV. We could rent the movies we wanted instead of waiting for it to be on TV. 20 feet long antenna on the terrace gets reduced the height of an umbrella. News of more than one channel of TV spreads around. Couple of years later the antenna is no longer needed. All you ever needed was a Cable through the window of the living room. The remote control which was not used till now finds itself choosing any of 10-15 channels. Everyone could watch TV in my regional language all day.

I finished my High school and came back home to figure out what I should in life. We boys used peep at 'Bay watch' or 'Bold and Beautiful' when nobody is around in the living room. There are English movies and more importantly ESPN, Discovery and BBC. All of a sudden watching TV becomes best way to know the world. Thus, TV becomes default activity when I was home. Couple of years in pre-university college away from home put me through to the Engineering college back in my hometown.

Once you have so many channels to choose from and with few other members of the family having the power to overrule you any given moment, you sure need a personal TV. A personal TV for a someone in 2nd year of College in India does not come easily. You needed to wait for a event so big, the power that be in the family agrees that the only way to have the event go peacefully is to buy you a small personal TV. Cricket World Cup 99 was such an event. Watching your own small little TV needs little separate room which was also a long time demand. And after the World Cup the TV,just decides to stay put in my room. Thus began my life with TV. And of course what good is a TV without Cable, right? There comes the Cable and with it all the HBO, ESPN,Discovery, NGC and BBC I ever wanted.

A computer and the internet on the back of it, still doesn't change watching TV being the default activity. In between I find enough time to graduate out of college. Some days there were 3-4 movies to be watched back to back from 7:30pm to 3:00 am. Other days 'Discovery Profiles' from 11:00 pm put me to sleep. BBC had unmissable documentaries on weekends. Budding India news channels provided all the political debate ever needed. Indianized MTV and Channel V had all the Generation X stuff. Indian pop music with its cool mix of traditional and western music was played all day and night. Regional languages put out 'Mid Night Masala' right after 1:00 am.

Another Cricket World Cup comes and goes And I come to US for studies. For few months TV was forgotten. The TV in US without the cable did not interest me. Then, me having nothing to do with it :), My roommates decide to get a Cable connection. And I reluctantly start watching few channels still missing the Magic of TV back home. I went as far as to assert programming in American TV channels are much better in India, than they actually are in the US. So TV was not same thing anymore mainly due to broadband internet on a personal laptop.

It took 2 years to graduate and find a job and move into a new place. Once in a new place, starting life alone could be difficult. A flat screen TV with a Cable connection can move in with anytime. Slowly, The Simpsons seemed fun to watch, Jay Leno was funny, South Park became one of things to watch, Science Channel was worth watching daily, C-SPAN keept me interested from time to time, watching FOX news and Bill Oreilly made watching Jon Stewart really funny and gratifying. History Channel showed all - everything that happened and that did not happen in World War II. Discovery channel dedicated a whole weekend to JFK's 'magic bullet theory'.

But there came another problem. With so many shows and programs to watch and a day job in hand, life could be chaotic. A call to the Cable provider brought a DVR to the apartment with few dollars extra per month. Now life became worth living as there are recorded TV shows to suit any mood anytime of the Day. Formula One races can be watched skipping all the commercials, 'Meet The Press' on Sunday morning gives me all the political caffeine to last a week and Science Channel programs on Space, Universe and Cosmos put me into sleep very gently at night.

"Home is where the heart is". I agree. But is it also true for me that "Home is where Television is?" - May be!