Just listening to this word would bring a flurry of fond memories from our childhood for most of us I am sure. With all sorts of TV channels that have emerged lately and attacked our daily routines, I must say I miss Door-Darshan or DD.

DD was not known until all these ‘other’ channels made their way into our lives, as prior to that DD was TV, and that was all you would get whenever you turn on the TV. With so much choice available now, one might think that it might have been very boring but it was not, at least not for me.

Everything about DD was completely different than what today’s channels are serving. There were no attacking news bulletins, no sting operations, no deafening music, no ‘Saas-Bahu’ sagas, no pre match and post match discussions. Everything was quite, happy, educative, neat and more realistic.

It all started with a calming music playing with the formation of DD logo (I hope you remember), and Educational programs from UGC used to start the day followed by the 7 am news which we had to watch, no matter if we could not understood most of it. Then off to school, and mom would know what happened through the day. Back from school and we had some Cartoon Shows which we could watch if we had done the Homework (so I missed most of them). Occasionally we were lucky to catch some filmy music in ‘Chitrahaar’ on Wednesday’s and Fridays. Then it was my fathers News session in the evenings, after which we were off to bed.

Sunday was our TV day, and I still remember waking up with the ‘rangoli’ songs, and believe me every house was playing the same songs. DD had its own glorious moments, when everything seemed to stop on Sunday morning 9 am with the ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’ starting and we sat in front of the TV to catch our Gods, in front of us. Then our Cartoon time, and other stuff to make way for much awaited Sunday Evening movie. Wow it was three hours with a 20 minute Interval after about 2 hours and my mom would insist on us to have our Dinner quickly in that time, so that she does not miss the climax. I even remember the ‘Sorry for Interruption’ screens which were frequent mostly with movies, where a mouse was shown cutting the tape and all I can say now it was vintage DD.

Another special memory was the 1992 world cup which was aired on DD and I used to wake up at 4 am ( don’t know how ) and sat beside my father who was already awoke, and together we watched Mark Greatbatch beating the ball around the lush green Australian grounds.

I know that DD has now changed and is trying to strike a balance between it’s historical image and the emerging trends, I don’t get to watch it too often now, but the DD I know will stay with me forever. And for those of you who feel the same way, here is a DD classic you would definitely identify.