Nostalgia

Am switching channels, and I suddenly chance upon Vikram aur Betal, the old Doordarshan version, with that still remembered serial tune in the end which I still remember from my childhood and I am filled with nostalgia. The set is so out-landish, with a paper moon, and Betal wildly flinging his arms as he flies away from Vikram’s shoulders, that you can make out the special effects and clearly understand how the ‘flying’ scenes were shot. But instead of laughing, the scene transports me back to my days of childhood, the days of Doordarshan. Was that actually a more innocent, less divisive world, the times when I was eight, and we only had Doordarshan for our entertainment? That was also India before 1989, before Kashmir insurgency, before Ayodhya temple, before Mumbai blasts, before Mandal Commission, before the 1991 liberalization era. Was that a more innocent, more understated world that the one we have now? or is it as A says, it was all there, except that it didn’t register in the consciousness of an eight year old? Also because that time was free from 24/7 new channels, hungry to serve up real and imagined news, the world only seemed to be a hushed and less discordant place?
I am a sucker for nostalgia..the Bong in me rearing her ugly head