Watching TV is my Hobby

I am one of those girls who personify Jack of all, master of none. I have fiddled with different kinds of instruments,sports, music..you get the gist..and always answered, “My hobbies are Watching TV, Reading books” when questioned. Seriously! How lame does that sound.But I do really love watching TV, though I doubt if it can ever be called a hobby.

I was in my 7th grade when a B/W Solidaire graced its presence in our house, thanks to my continued insistence to run over to the neighbours’ for watching TV. I watched the whole 1983 world cup in a small TV at my friend’s house.It was very exciting to get entertained visually than just providing fodder for the auditory nerves via Vividh Bharathi, 9:15PM Vanna Chudar(Play) and ABBA. And to find out there would be programs from Morning till night on Sundays.Oh Yes! Parents could not even bribe me with munchies.
I owe my spoken Hindi (better than “Ek Ganvu me ek kisan ragutha tha”) to all the Doordarshan serials.

In my 10th grade, B/W changed to Color TV , a few days before my board games. I felt like a rabbit who sees a carrot dangling, with mouth watering ,not able to reach it. But this rabbit was quite cunning and watched all the serials on a mirror facing the TV. 10 days of watching mirror images and I could not think straight by the time my board exams got over.Whew !! I barely made it to high school.

During my undergrad days, my only agenda on Saturdays was watching the Hindi movie at 5:30PM other than sleeping.My day went something like this, wake up at 9:55, run to the mess to eat fundu dosas ( that was the only day when breakfast was even bearable) , go back to bed,wake up at 1:30, have lunch, snore…. , wake up at 5:25, run to the TV hall and watch the movie, have dinner, what else??back to bed..Whew!! It is not easy to sleep your way to glory like that. Take it from a veteran.

While in Dallas, working for TI, I was given a fully furnished apartment.Thank God !!… no..no..thank TI..I can’t imagine a world without TV. The TV was my only companion and was switched on through out the day and night, introducing me to all the sitcoms in the US. Practice makes a woman perfect and I had one year of practice to get acquainted with the US entertainment industry.

Three days back, our Dish Receiver decided to die on us.Come hell or high water, I need a TV. So, in the span of three days, we watched four movies…two of which we had already watched,one comedy, one very stupid movie, not watchable under normal conditions, but circumstances were dire and drastic measures had to be taken. Yesterday !! Hallelujah!! A new receiver and I ended my day with Jon Stewart, laughing and crying with joy at the same time.Yes, There is a God !!