Sometimes, as in the present Cauvery context, the whole thing becomes even more bizarre if, for instance, the owners of the Sun TV Tamil channel also operate a Kannada TV channel called Udaya. Sometimes, it is not just the â€˜ratsâ€™! If two states are divided by a common river and there is a tussle over the sharing of the waters of the same, then the youth wing of a political party in one state will â€˜defendâ€™ the state''s rights by â€˜persuadingâ€™ cable-operators to â€˜voluntarilyâ€™ stop telecasting channels beamed in the lingo of the other state! Thank you for your assention (attention?)!â€� Until the rats are reasonable, please bare (meaning bear) with us. However, there has been a new twist to the unfolding tale, as it were! The cable-operators now decide what one should or should not see! And if there is a tussle between one chain of cable-operators and a particular network, the latter promptly gets blacked out.įor someone like me who has got used to watching the discussions on the Star TV news channel, it is particularly disturbing to flip on and see a black screen on which words emerge and say things like â€œYour friendly cable-operator is protecting you from the increase in rats (meaning rates).

Which is where I should logically have ended this piece I am writing.

I spent more time and energy flipping channels than focussing on any one programme.Įven a movie which was seriously good was eschewed if a one-day match on another channel was approaching its climactic moment! And everything else was forgotten if - God forbid - there was a tragically major development like an accident or a terrorist attack.

It was quite an experience to catch up in the comfort of one''s home on movies which I had missed due to the occupational hazards of being in a profession where the pen may have been mightier than the sword but where it was the latter which made news which had to be covered by those wielding the former -no news is good news and all that!Īnd then came cable-TV about a decade ago and my world changed.

I even got to watch seriously good Indian films like Girish Kasaravalli''s Ghattashraddha, Adoor Gopalakrishnan''s Elipathayam and Ritwik Ghatak''s Meghey Dhaka Tara. It did not make all that difference since the cricket was transferred to the metro channel if the national channel was showing classical Indian dance - I still remember a late-night telecast of danseuses performing in front of the ruins of Hampi to the lilting background song of â€˜Shri Krishnadevarayaâ€™.

Doordarshan kannada old serials