Death in the Family

Hello Rema
Now so use to your suspense posts when I read that you had time now for knitting, reading books and washing vessels etc i immediately guessed this has to be Television of the house that is dead at Rema's place:biglaugh and LOL I found the television died of high voltage....hehehe

 

Dear Rema

The British have the greatest regard for their Royalty. Even when they announce the death of the King, they would say ‘The King is dead. Long live the King!’ because all royal proclamations are concluded with the hailing of the King! I expected you to announce the death of the TV with the same reverence but was disappointed to see that you had mentioned it as casually as if it was a street dog crushed by a truck.

The English novel ‘Lolita’ authored by the famous Russian Vladimir Nabokov was hailed as one of the best 100 novels written between 1923 and 2005 by TIME. Its central subject was highly controversial but nevertheless it was highly rated. The story is about a middle-aged man falling in love with a 12 year old girl! The story starts with the following emotionally fiery lines, “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul." I am mentioning this to drive home the fact that even the socially unacceptable happenings can still become a rage among public. Lolita was condemned by almost everyone but the fact that she has grown to be a cult figure subsequently would indicate that Lolita set every heart on fire secretly!

TV is like Lolita. No other gadget is as ‘much maligned’ as TV. We ridicule it as idiot box without ever taking our eyes off it. When the TV is on, one eye of the participants of even the most important discussions will be on the TV. When Doordarshan made its first appearance in Chennai in 1962, we acquired our first TV set. It was a black and white TV called Bharat and had rolling shutters for the screen! The programs ran for about 4 hours a day from 6 p.m. I remember how the DD logo would appear accompanied by the signature tune sending waves of excitement through our bodies! Except for the weekly film programmes called ‘Oliyum oliyum’ every programme used to be a bore but we would never miss any of them including the ‘Vayalum Vaazhvum’ meant for the farmers!

But there was no looking back since then! Hundreds of channels keep airing their colorful programs round the clock and though we don’t sit glued to it as in the past, it is always on. You can easily spot out the lord of the family from who handles the remote most of the time. In my house my mil handles it even when the TV is not on! Such is the effect it has on everyone. I am amused to read your suspenseful thread on the demise of the TV. But don’t you know that like the Phoenix it would come back to life? In the modern life, TV is about the only thing that can be compared to The Brook of Lord Tennyson to be able to say, ‘Men may come and men may go but I go on forever’

Your gleeful announcement about the death of the TV is just to hide your intense feelings about its absence, a temporary absence from your life and I know how much you miss it!

Sri