Reinventing Sunday Mornings
For the past couple of months, I have contemplated writing posts on several types of random stuff. In fact, I had thought of blogging about blogging itself. As anyone can guess, procrastination did get the better of me. But this time, I do have more excuses than just the me-being-lazy part. The NSS NGO Mela I was organizing was on 20th March. Once that got over, I took some time off to chill and feel nice about the lack of emails and phone calls. But the chilling was interrupted pretty soon by shopping. Yes. Shopping for my cousin's wedding which was to be in April. And my brother was coming down to India to attend it - 'we are family' time, people (nothing like the movie, please). Then DU decided it'd be nice to torture second year students of Sociology Honors with a date sheet stretched over a month. So nice, no? Anyway, now that I'm done with the excuses and attempting to justify my absence, I shall write. A post, I mean. Seeing as how I was already, technically, writing.
Sunday mornings. The meaning of this phrase changed over different phases of my life, I'm pretty sure it has for some of you too.
Back when I was a kid, these Sunday mornings was defined by the reruns of B.R. Chopra's Mahabharata or Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana. Of course, I don't have vivid memories of watching them but I do remember the shiny trishuls and random cool weapons flying around. And ooh, chariots. And bhai-wah type k costumes. And the background score, oooh.
Then as we came across the term 'brunch' (was it just me or did you find it sort of cool too? The whole, oh look! Breakfast meets lunch and doesn't that sound fancayy!), Sunday mornings became all about brunch. Even though it's not like my Ma cooked some fancy continental food. It's just, we ended up having food at an ... in-between/brunch-ish time most of the time. Specially since I began to make use of Sundays to dare and wake up late - like, 10-11 am. Of course, Tamilians would refer to the food we ate for brunch or during the evening as 'tiffen' or 'tibban/tippan'. And yes, quite some times it would be dosas and idlis only (note for the north Indians reading this - there're more Tamil food items that exist and are quite tasty. You can ask me. Yes, they exist. We eat them. Even though restaurants don't usually serve them.)
Post the brunch obsession began the newspaper-reading phase. This is not to imply that I never read newspapers before I was 13 years old. But it became a Sunday Morning ritual. What I looked forward to the most was Jug Suraiya's column in the Times Of India. I used to look forward to the next Sunday the minute I finished reading his column. Soon enough, I began developing a taste for reading the Editorial columns of different newspapers on Sundays. Of course, a few years ago, Jug Suraiya's column shifted days (Monday/Friday ... something). I'd lost track of the day it was supposed to come on, so I'd end up glancing through the Editorial page every day anyway.
After I heard Sunday Morning by Maroon 5 - yes, that's what'd come to mind when I thought of them.
For say, the last two years or so - my Sunday mornings include waking up late, having brunch on some days and reading Times of India, Hindustan Times, Indian Express and most importantly the magazines 'Eye' (Indian Express) and 'Brunch' (Hindustan Times). And listening to the song Sunday Morning if it's raining outside (Sunday morning rain is falling ...).
However, about six weekends ago, Sunday mornings got redefined. I'm pretty sure you can guess what I'm talking about.
Aamir Khan has helped redefine Sunday mornings and remind us of how they used to be. Satyamev Jayate airs every Sunday at 11 AM on almost all channels of the Star Network as well as DD National. Aamir reportedly said that he wants this specific time slot because it is sort of the 'family TV viewing' time slot. It's a refreshing, perhaps even bold move to redefine Prime Time television! Ramayan and Mahabharata were telecast at this time about two decades back (wow, I'm going to complete two decades of existence soon - and i gave away my age :O). Saas-bahu to Satyamev?
I think it's an excellent initiative on Aamir's part to pick up these issues and make aware more Indians of the good, the bad and the ugly. I'd give him a thumbs-up on the execution as well.
Of course, I did feel like it was a sob-fest the first two-three episodes. I mean, seriously - I'd be tearing up only to see my Ma silently crying herself. I'm not a big fan of starting the day with tears unless they're of the 'Ma, main apni kaksha mein avval numbaron se paas hua!' or 'Ma, meri naukri lag gayi hai.' variety. Of course, neither of those have happened at my place. Oh wait, 3 Rakhis ago - we definitely had the 'Mere bete/bhai k paas US ka visa hai ab!' sob-fest, yes.
Sure, I do find Aamir's semi-long sighs slight aa fake or a leeettal beeet long. And that kinda makes me laugh. But I find him keeping up with the title of show - honest and also, genuine. And I can't imagine the sort of experiences the research team would've gone through.
So, do I like this new ritual? Yep. It keeps my parents and me glued to the TV in one room for a few hours which probably hasn't happened much since I became a teenager.
Of course, apart from Satyamev Jayate, there's another show the completes our Sunday matinee. Justice with Michael Sandel, a Harvard professor, broadcast on NDTV at 10 am. His lectures are available to view online for free, as well as on NDTV. It makes for an intellectually stimulating morning. Specially when I have spent Saturday nights studying Political Sociology to wake up on Sunday morning to notice the same names come up in slightly different contexts!
The newspapers got pushed up for later in the day, but I don't think they mind. Neither do my parents or I.
Sunday mornings. The meaning of this phrase changed over different phases of my life, I'm pretty sure it has for some of you too.
Back when I was a kid, these Sunday mornings was defined by the reruns of B.R. Chopra's Mahabharata or Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana. Of course, I don't have vivid memories of watching them but I do remember the shiny trishuls and random cool weapons flying around. And ooh, chariots. And bhai-wah type k costumes. And the background score, oooh.
Then as we came across the term 'brunch' (was it just me or did you find it sort of cool too? The whole, oh look! Breakfast meets lunch and doesn't that sound fancayy!), Sunday mornings became all about brunch. Even though it's not like my Ma cooked some fancy continental food. It's just, we ended up having food at an ... in-between/brunch-ish time most of the time. Specially since I began to make use of Sundays to dare and wake up late - like, 10-11 am. Of course, Tamilians would refer to the food we ate for brunch or during the evening as 'tiffen' or 'tibban/tippan'. And yes, quite some times it would be dosas and idlis only (note for the north Indians reading this - there're more Tamil food items that exist and are quite tasty. You can ask me. Yes, they exist. We eat them. Even though restaurants don't usually serve them.)
Post the brunch obsession began the newspaper-reading phase. This is not to imply that I never read newspapers before I was 13 years old. But it became a Sunday Morning ritual. What I looked forward to the most was Jug Suraiya's column in the Times Of India. I used to look forward to the next Sunday the minute I finished reading his column. Soon enough, I began developing a taste for reading the Editorial columns of different newspapers on Sundays. Of course, a few years ago, Jug Suraiya's column shifted days (Monday/Friday ... something). I'd lost track of the day it was supposed to come on, so I'd end up glancing through the Editorial page every day anyway.
After I heard Sunday Morning by Maroon 5 - yes, that's what'd come to mind when I thought of them.
For say, the last two years or so - my Sunday mornings include waking up late, having brunch on some days and reading Times of India, Hindustan Times, Indian Express and most importantly the magazines 'Eye' (Indian Express) and 'Brunch' (Hindustan Times). And listening to the song Sunday Morning if it's raining outside (Sunday morning rain is falling ...).
However, about six weekends ago, Sunday mornings got redefined. I'm pretty sure you can guess what I'm talking about.
Aamir Khan has helped redefine Sunday mornings and remind us of how they used to be. Satyamev Jayate airs every Sunday at 11 AM on almost all channels of the Star Network as well as DD National. Aamir reportedly said that he wants this specific time slot because it is sort of the 'family TV viewing' time slot. It's a refreshing, perhaps even bold move to redefine Prime Time television! Ramayan and Mahabharata were telecast at this time about two decades back (wow, I'm going to complete two decades of existence soon - and i gave away my age :O). Saas-bahu to Satyamev?
I think it's an excellent initiative on Aamir's part to pick up these issues and make aware more Indians of the good, the bad and the ugly. I'd give him a thumbs-up on the execution as well.
Of course, I did feel like it was a sob-fest the first two-three episodes. I mean, seriously - I'd be tearing up only to see my Ma silently crying herself. I'm not a big fan of starting the day with tears unless they're of the 'Ma, main apni kaksha mein avval numbaron se paas hua!' or 'Ma, meri naukri lag gayi hai.' variety. Of course, neither of those have happened at my place. Oh wait, 3 Rakhis ago - we definitely had the 'Mere bete/bhai k paas US ka visa hai ab!' sob-fest, yes.
Sure, I do find Aamir's semi-long sighs slight aa fake or a leeettal beeet long. And that kinda makes me laugh. But I find him keeping up with the title of show - honest and also, genuine. And I can't imagine the sort of experiences the research team would've gone through.
So, do I like this new ritual? Yep. It keeps my parents and me glued to the TV in one room for a few hours which probably hasn't happened much since I became a teenager.
Of course, apart from Satyamev Jayate, there's another show the completes our Sunday matinee. Justice with Michael Sandel, a Harvard professor, broadcast on NDTV at 10 am. His lectures are available to view online for free, as well as on NDTV. It makes for an intellectually stimulating morning. Specially when I have spent Saturday nights studying Political Sociology to wake up on Sunday morning to notice the same names come up in slightly different contexts!
The newspapers got pushed up for later in the day, but I don't think they mind. Neither do my parents or I.
Comments
Didn't realize you'd recall any of BRC's epic retelling of the epics. My earliest memories of Sunday mornings are of Superman, Spiderman and He man (and of course, Hanuman).