Indian television - It's good you know!

Indian television is surely a notch above the rest. I remember this one month I spent at Europe and the frustration that TV brought along. First, there is no cable operator like in India, who will fix every cable related and small TV related problem for you. They have Set Top box or more popularly Sky TV (yes, the British version of Tata Sky, or is it the other way round?!) We did not have Tata Sky at home before I went to Europe, so operating 1 TV with 2 remote controls was quite a task for me. Oh was it 2 or 5? Yeah, the room had a remote control for the heater, for the DVD player, for the music system, the TV and for Sky TV. Phew! I spent an entire evening with my palms freezing outside the gloves (we Indians cant seem to do anything with gloves on!) but alas, I had not the faintest idea how to work the damn TV.

The next evening my friend came home (who had quite easily figured out switching on the flat screen monster) and we started surfing. There were many shows (read American idol, old episodes of friends and sex and the city - thats it.) There were about 60 channels playing either one of the 3 - All The Time. There was nothing else to watch. Again, my friend found for me a channel that would play hip-hop 24x7. And there too, no surprises, it was the same set of 5 songs. sigh!

And that is when, the me who cant stop saying how much I dislike TV, I started missing Indian television. The joy of Star Cricket, news on NDTV, Roadies on MTV, Boogie Woogie on Sony TV! Aah! man is that heaven!! I was desperate to the extent, some big bindis and zardosi sarees in a K serial-ish setting on TV would have made my day!

How can I forget the quintessential Indian advertisements? Authors' note: All ads in Europe were as if I was watching Asian Sky Shop. Ya, like what Bingo has tried doing, in a mocking way, is exactly how ads for packets of yucky looking potato wafers to the ads for washing machine are. That is when I appreciated Indian advertisements the most. I mean just see the latest Himani Pain relief ad, so symbolic of today's world.
The ad for an Insurance policy - Khwaab thode zyaada - it touches you somewhere. They know what we relate to. And the old dairy milk ad, remember? Kya swaad hai zindagi ka? Oh my God! now these are what I call advertisements. They are supposed to sell products, and they do!

Though I am back in India and it turns out I am not an Indian TV freak yet, I will still sign off saying - Long live Indian TV and the masala!