Audio and Video
I was posting this song "Lovebug" on facebook today and it struck me, how much those late 70s n early 80s pop songs have bonded us cousins together as a family. Of course, when it comes to songs, we must not forget their players or the people who got the songs to us in the first place too!
Now, where would we be without our age old electronics? Back then, the early 80s were the nascent stages of the great electronic revolution of India. We all started out with Black and White televisions - our Bharat Electronic TV at NN played only 2 channels, that too with a good deal of thumping on the top and the sides. It had a dial to change channels, there were numbers from 1 to 10 (why, I still don't know when only 1 would work and 2 was at the most a very, very fuzzy picture of 1). The one in Sahakar was better...Keep in touch with Dyanora..la la la laaa.. (ok, it's Dyanora tv but I still cannot say just Dyanora, I have to say the entire punch line, somethings just don't leave your brain). That too had dials instead of buttons to change channels and volume. Of course, Chitta's place at Andheri had the same Dyanora, while Periappa had the same Bharat Electronic Tv.
Our tape recorder, was Philips, that small thingy you saw in the 70s movies, single cassette deck, one red button for record, one blue for stop (weird na?) and white buttons for play, forward and rewind. We had fun with that thing, once we recorded over Amma's bhajan casette, all of us singing off key voices mein the song from Mr. India (na maangu sona chandi, hum maange maafi didi). Boy, my mom had a shock when she played that bhajan cassette (imagine Krishna Krishna Mukunda Janardana, Krishna Govinda..Na Mangu Sona Chandi!!!!). It served us well, till we eventually discarded it and got that Dubai return Votra crap for sometime, which kept looping the cassette tape inside..Eventually we became experts aat unwinding the tape with a pencil and sticking it back inside again to play. Then we got the Karaoke machine, and had fun times with it (Rajan mama is Hemant Kumar reincarnated, I swear).
At Sahakar, who can forget the DECK!! Sony...I still believe that even professional systems don't hold a candle to that thing! Mama would play "Hey Mickey" in it and you could hear it all the way upto the main gate...plus the effects were just awesome! Some of our best song memories are in that one...Roll Jackie Roll, Highway Bus, Santa Maria and of course the Laughing Song, LoveBug and Love to Love Baby (which now I think we censor from our kids, back then our parents made it sound like someone was doing a rather difficult potty, so we kids never realised what it was in reality). There was a Sony smaller boombox, again a Dubai return thing which went to Marol eventually.
When the color tv revolution came, all of us got the same model simultaneously, Videocon in baby Attai's Periappa's and our place and Sony in Chitta and Sahakar places. I forget which one was there in Marol, I think it was a Dubai return model, not sure, Vidya or Sandy can throw some light there.
Then came the VCPs (Video cassette players) and VCRs (Video cassette recorders), who can forget endless re-runs of Tom n Jerry, Kidsongs and Jamai Raja (yups, Archie and Vidya were huge fans of this movie) at Sahakar. In those days, only one house had the goodies, that's how parents controlled tv viewing in kids. Now we have too many gadgets in all houses, but then again times are different now.
I think our dad was technologically advanced atleast where computers were concerned, still remember the good ol x386 machine, only DOS, Windows 3.1, Pacman and Bricks in that one. All we did was play Pacman and Bricks. And it had that 5.1/4 inch floppy drive, you ACTUALLY had to LOCK the floppy in for it to read!!! We got a x486 and then an assembled Pentium soon enough. FYI - the assembled type model with the extra large back still exists in my office, when I walked in the first time 3.5 yrs ago, I felt I had gone back in time!
Even internet was text only browser in those days, all we could do was chat, nothing else, till the assembled thing came, then we had that mtnl dialup connection (how many people remember the sound? My mind still replays it when I lose the connection occasionally at work and have to reconnect back).
Alright, I am rambling now, but what I really want is for my dear cousins to put in their memories here too of all the good music and movies and times we had with our devices...
Waiting to hear from you guys,
Siya
P.S:- Special mention here for Gautam, our cassette king! Every Rakhi, he would gift us latest audio cassettes of popular Hindi/English movies/songs...he was and still is the bestest brother on Rakhi days ever!!
I was posting this song "Lovebug" on facebook today and it struck me, how much those late 70s n early 80s pop songs have bonded us cousins together as a family. Of course, when it comes to songs, we must not forget their players or the people who got the songs to us in the first place too!
Now, where would we be without our age old electronics? Back then, the early 80s were the nascent stages of the great electronic revolution of India. We all started out with Black and White televisions - our Bharat Electronic TV at NN played only 2 channels, that too with a good deal of thumping on the top and the sides. It had a dial to change channels, there were numbers from 1 to 10 (why, I still don't know when only 1 would work and 2 was at the most a very, very fuzzy picture of 1). The one in Sahakar was better...Keep in touch with Dyanora..la la la laaa.. (ok, it's Dyanora tv but I still cannot say just Dyanora, I have to say the entire punch line, somethings just don't leave your brain). That too had dials instead of buttons to change channels and volume. Of course, Chitta's place at Andheri had the same Dyanora, while Periappa had the same Bharat Electronic Tv.
Our tape recorder, was Philips, that small thingy you saw in the 70s movies, single cassette deck, one red button for record, one blue for stop (weird na?) and white buttons for play, forward and rewind. We had fun with that thing, once we recorded over Amma's bhajan casette, all of us singing off key voices mein the song from Mr. India (na maangu sona chandi, hum maange maafi didi). Boy, my mom had a shock when she played that bhajan cassette (imagine Krishna Krishna Mukunda Janardana, Krishna Govinda..Na Mangu Sona Chandi!!!!). It served us well, till we eventually discarded it and got that Dubai return Votra crap for sometime, which kept looping the cassette tape inside..Eventually we became experts aat unwinding the tape with a pencil and sticking it back inside again to play. Then we got the Karaoke machine, and had fun times with it (Rajan mama is Hemant Kumar reincarnated, I swear).
At Sahakar, who can forget the DECK!! Sony...I still believe that even professional systems don't hold a candle to that thing! Mama would play "Hey Mickey" in it and you could hear it all the way upto the main gate...plus the effects were just awesome! Some of our best song memories are in that one...Roll Jackie Roll, Highway Bus, Santa Maria and of course the Laughing Song, LoveBug and Love to Love Baby (which now I think we censor from our kids, back then our parents made it sound like someone was doing a rather difficult potty, so we kids never realised what it was in reality). There was a Sony smaller boombox, again a Dubai return thing which went to Marol eventually.
When the color tv revolution came, all of us got the same model simultaneously, Videocon in baby Attai's Periappa's and our place and Sony in Chitta and Sahakar places. I forget which one was there in Marol, I think it was a Dubai return model, not sure, Vidya or Sandy can throw some light there.
Then came the VCPs (Video cassette players) and VCRs (Video cassette recorders), who can forget endless re-runs of Tom n Jerry, Kidsongs and Jamai Raja (yups, Archie and Vidya were huge fans of this movie) at Sahakar. In those days, only one house had the goodies, that's how parents controlled tv viewing in kids. Now we have too many gadgets in all houses, but then again times are different now.
I think our dad was technologically advanced atleast where computers were concerned, still remember the good ol x386 machine, only DOS, Windows 3.1, Pacman and Bricks in that one. All we did was play Pacman and Bricks. And it had that 5.1/4 inch floppy drive, you ACTUALLY had to LOCK the floppy in for it to read!!! We got a x486 and then an assembled Pentium soon enough. FYI - the assembled type model with the extra large back still exists in my office, when I walked in the first time 3.5 yrs ago, I felt I had gone back in time!
Even internet was text only browser in those days, all we could do was chat, nothing else, till the assembled thing came, then we had that mtnl dialup connection (how many people remember the sound? My mind still replays it when I lose the connection occasionally at work and have to reconnect back).
Alright, I am rambling now, but what I really want is for my dear cousins to put in their memories here too of all the good music and movies and times we had with our devices...
Waiting to hear from you guys,
Siya
P.S:- Special mention here for Gautam, our cassette king! Every Rakhi, he would gift us latest audio cassettes of popular Hindi/English movies/songs...he was and still is the bestest brother on Rakhi days ever!!
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