Chappar phad Ke

There is a saying in Hindi called:

"Dene wala jab bhi deta deta chappar phad ke"

Which roughly means when god decides to give you something he overwhelms you. Last year Georgia was in drought. Lake lanier, which is the main source of water for Atlanta region was drying out and people were predicting doomsday.

There were all sorts of water restrictions. They did not allow car washes and there were severe restrictions on when and for how long you can water your yard. And on one morning last year, Governor Purdue held a prayer meeting on steps of capitol. They held prayers to appease the rain god.

Rain god was pleased to that extent that he flooded us with rain. Last week we had heavy rain resulting in flood which damaged a lot of properties, took lives and brought life to a standstill for a couple of days. Here is one link that gives you an idea:

http://newfield.org/dale/flood/

Lot of people who had damages due to the flood were not in the flood zone so they did not have flood insurance. Now government has to help them. Don't know if these are the effects of global warming. Because Atlanta never had a hurricane, never had floods and we have seen both in 2 years.

Celebrating 50 years of Doordarshan

Yesterday Doordarshan celebrated 50 years of its existence. Though I have stopped watching DD long time ago since the inception of the cable channels. But before the cable channels era, there was one and only Doordarshan for us. There were some good programmes on DD. 

I remember those news anchors C.V. Raman, Salma Sultan, Mini Mathur, Usha Albequereque (I found her last name very tongue twisting and funny) and another lady whose face I remember but cannot remember her name. Then there were the mythological serials like Ramayan and Mahabharat. Then there was the opulent "Chandrakanta". Crime thrillers like "Byomkesh Bakshi", "Tehkikat", "Karamchand". Then there were some funny serials like "Flop Show", "Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne", "Mr. Yogi". I remember watching "Nukkad", "Talaash". 

There were some good musical programmes too. I used to get up early in the morning on sunday to watch "Rangoli". I used to schedule my dinner around 8 PM on tuesdays and thursdays so that I can watch "Chitrahaar". Then there was another program on saturday called "Show Theme" where they used to show some scenes from the movies.  Then there were some classic songs like "Ek Titli", "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara", "Padhna likhna seekho" which I enjoyed a lot. 

During the summer holidays, I used to watch the afternoon TV programmes. I remember there was a program called "Baingan Raja", then there was "Ek tara Bole" and Tabassum used to narrate some stories. Then there was "Vikram Betaal". 

It feels so nostalgic to go back in time and remember all the years we spent with Doordarshan. DD does not have the viewership that it used to have before and for that reason I feel it needs to reinvent itself and have some innovative programs that are liked by everyone.