TV Over the Years


In her Reading & Comprehension passage, my 8 yo daughter was horrified to learn that there were no TV’s in India around 50 years back. And that we got to 2 TV channels only around 30 years back, and even then only in the metros first. She didn’t believe me when I added that TV broadcast were not 24 x 7, that they were only available in a certain time window:

As someone born in the age of cable and who now lives on Internet based TV (Netflix etc) only ever since we cut off cable, these are alien concepts for her:

Then again, the move to Internet TV means kids these days are not guilty of being like this in front of the TV, something our generation was very guilty of:


Watching Internet TV is not “passive entertainment”; they actively search for what they like and watch it. As one comedy serial put it, the definition of Hell used to be that if you went to the bathroom, you missed it for good; if you missed an episode, it wouldn’t come again for years. Not anymore: you just pause the show and watch it whenever you can/ want/ like.

And yet, the more things change, the more they remain the same: the God named TV is eternal and inspires the same kind of worship from every new generation.


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