Door Darshan Beckons!

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Even after six months of stay in our present house in Pune, we don’t have a TV cable connection. It was our collective decision to not have this medium of information and entertainment at our home. The reasons were numerous – firstly, we thought that the news and information provided by newspapers and Radio broadcasts were quite sufficient for us; secondly, we hated the quality of entertainment that current Indian TV channels provide; thirdly, we wanted our minds to think beyond TV when at leisure. We were satisfied with our current setting involving newspaper reading in the morning, doing household chores with the Radio playing in the background, and watching Bollywood and Hollywood movies of our choice during the week-ends. But then Australian Open Tournament happened, and all I got to see and hear of it was through my tennis buddies’ expressions and opinions pertaining to the match played the previous day. I found my craving for viewing some live action increasing each day, and hence, decided to talk with my husband regarding the ‘Idiot Box’. He, however, isn’t much of a sports enthusiast and thus, found my demand for the TV as a backtrack from our aforementioned decision.

I thought of a solution that could accommodate our former principles as well as my new-found interest in viewing some world-class action on TV. The solution was to subscribe only to our dear old DoorDarshan (DD), and stay away from the rest of the plethora in the TV World. No sooner did the supposed solution came into my mind, I made some important inquiries from my maid-servant who was recently gifted an old TV set by someone. She told me that they called an electrician to fit an old-fashioned antenna to the TV and now they could watch all the DD channels! I was filled with nostalgia over my girlhood days when we too were served the DD channels by our large antenna. I got the chance to revive my old fascination for our dear old DD on Sunday when my husband and son were safely out of my way in Mumbai. I summoned an electrician, told him that our LCD TV set had come from the USA and had some NTSC / PAL conversion issues, and then asked him if he could still bring DD channels to my TV. He hummed in affirmative and quickly erected at my balcony a ‘not-so-big’ antenna on a large steel pole provided by me. Hours passed by slowly after that and still nothing came on my TV screen. I came out of my computer room to see him from time to time and found him fumbling with the TV’s remote control in an effort to tune in the elusive channels. I finally lost patience with him and asked him if he had done anything about the TV’s NTSC / PAL compatibility. This time he spoke out that he knew nothing about NTSC / PAL conversion. I felt like shouting at him but controlled my anger and asked him to leave immediately and come later with someone who had the requisite knowledge. He hesitatingly said that he had paid 300 rupees for the antenna and cable. I gave him the money and asked him to come again soon. Half an hour later, he called me up telling me that installation of antenna for DD channels was no longer in practice now. I was taken aback and somehow controlling my agitation, told him that my maid-servant had got it done recently, and moreover, he needed to solve the NTSC / PAL problem in my TV rather than telling me tales about DD. He further informed me that the shop-keeper who sold him the antenna and cable would not take back the cable. This time I lost control and shouted at him to come back and take away the rubbish from my balcony.

I felt cheated. I inhaled deeply a few times and sat pondering over the whole situation. I analyzed that I had lost my money and time over the electrician’s foolishness, but then I gave a thought to the electrician’s situation. He too spent his entire day at my work; went to and fro many times between my house and the electricity shop; looked and felt miserable at his failure to do my work and would now lose some money too if I insisted on his taking back the stuff and returning my money. I decided to forgive the poor man, and started to feel light and happy again. When the man came back, I asked him about his charges for doing the work that he ‘undid’ at my house and also about the money that the shop-keeper would give back on returning his stuff. He said that he charged 200 rupees for similar work and the shop-keeper would return 180 rupees for the antenna. I quickly did my math and told him to take away the antenna and the cable with him and not to bother about returning my 300 rupees. Color returned to his pale face and he happily pledged to help me in getting the colors on my vacant TV screen soon. I, however, had had enough and wanted neither ‘Colors’ nor DD on my TV for quite some time!