Thursday, October 27, 2005

A quick tale 89

Treat for the TV people

This happened about 22 years ago. So please don't leave comments in the comment box that such a thing cannot happen today and so on. Of course, it cannot happen today. Because we're talking about a time when there was only one channel on TV, which was a black & white set and there was only 4 hours of transmission everyday between 6 and 10 pm.

In those days, you were a little boy who had been told that tiny, palm-sized people lived inside the winding cables and that they appeared every evening at the appointed hour to entertain you.

Concerned for their welfare, you secretly laid out a glass of milk and some biscuits by the set at nights. These, to your delight, always managed to disappear in the morning. Until one day when your father commented about how one of the presenters was growing fat as if she had been feasting on milk and butter. So you did not leave anything out that night and you thought you heard the presenter stumble while making an announcement the next day. When you did not leave anything out again the following day, you thought she had grown dark circle under her eyes. A third day without milk and biscuits and she looked positively gaunt to you. Even your father remarked upon it.

It was sometime then that you were given your first bicycle and you quickly forgot all about the nightly treats for the TV people. These days you pretend to know all about transmitters and antenna and cable and how we get moving images inside the television set. But you still want to believe that for those 3 weeks in 1983, small people lived inside a little electronic box in your living room. And that you kept them well-fed.

Silly, I know. But try telling that to you .

10 comments:

Lost in trance... said...

wat happened to that presenter?

tris said...

I used to feed laddoos to ants so I can empathize :-)

kay said...

but... but... in 1983 televisions were colored, there was more than 1 channel, and tv was 24 hours?

apu said...

You mean to say you stopped feeding them? And you let that presenter die? How could you....!

Shammi said...

Any presenters you know that are being kept alive by kind, thoughtful kids? :)

D LordLabak said...

kay, TV was 24 hours in 1983! Which country were you in then? I was scared of Doordarshan's moving circles that appeared when the transmission started. And finally one day, I gathered enough courage and sat through it. What a trooper!:-)

radiantbear said...

about the small people on time thing I used to belive that... 15 years back!! when i was 5!!

Great post as usual!!

and my hello's to jikku!! :-)

Nachiketas said...

In my humble opinion, this is simply your very best.

kay said...

oops. :) well, i take that part about tv being 24 hours back.

Boopathy Srinivasan said...

hi ammani..
romba funny
everybody something of that kind.
i had my doubts rgding the cinema theatres..
i will better post about them.
drop into my tamil blog sometime.
i ask ur comments on my previous posts including the ones in archives.
laadlabakdas.blogspot.com
nanri