Andha naal nyabagam..

- when oliyum oliyum (ha, there is no way to differentiate the two ‘la’s when u write in English..) was the most sought after TV programme of the week
- when a typical Sunday evening meant “I love you Rasna” ad, followed by Spiderman cartoon and then the thamizh feature film (even the most dabba films used to get full viewership!!)
- when betting was a rage at home .. well, not about whether Tendulkar is going to score another run or not, but about the combination of news readers on the 8:30 news.. Shobana Ravi and Nijandhan, Sandhya Rajgopal and Thamizhanban and so on..
- when there was so much excitement when doordharshan announced the introduction of “second channel”
- when we learnt Hindi through watching “Yeh jo hai zindagi”, “Hum log” and “Idhar Udhar” ..
- when we booked a trunk call and waited for hours to talk to athai who stayed at Delhi
- when we set the alarm at 4 in the morning to watch Manoj Prabhakar steaming in to bowl to David Boon and Geoff Marsh .. India Australia cricket was popular even then, but purely for cricketing reasons..
- when visiting the marina beach was the favourite pastime during our annual holidays
- when we patiently wrote out and posted some fifty greeting cards to all friends and extended family to wish them a happy new year..
- when our favourite weekend activity was when appa hummed some old hindi and thamizh melodies and we took turns to find out the songs correctly..
- when we played eklavyas at home and learnt most of the songs that amma taught her students (amma was a music teacher) without ever sitting down to learn..
- when there was no phone at home and we used to call Chellappa uncle (our neighbour) to communicate to amma if we were getting delayed outside..
- when we played cards but never on the PC..
- when the blue inland letters from our cousins and friends were the most precious treasures we had ..
- when the media and telecom revolution had not happened and we had time for the little pleasures in life ..