An ode to good old DD….the brands, ads, serials that used to be

An ode to good old brands and ads that are no more to be seen….to those good old days that they allude to :)
Shampoos meant velvette or halo; but we stuck to good old ‘Seeyakkai’ which were the least merciful to our eyes!
Rasna had a rival…trinka! So did Lays in uncle chips
The first TV to have graced our living room was a black and white Solidaire followed by the first colour TV we got; Dyanora
Premier Padmini was what the upper middle class drove and Contessa secured you the seat among elites. Maruti was more like the new kid on the block
Coca cola’s Fanta was not around. Goldspot’s polka dots were
Forhans, Binaca, Cibacca, Babool (much of them are still around but have their days of glory are obviously gone)
Bhool na jaana ECE bulb lana…

Hamdard Ka Sinkara….The tag line ‘Yeh bechara kaam ke bhoj ka maara’ is still very much in use though
The kids going ‘Mummy Maltova please!’
Natraj pencil ads showing the cartoon of kids playing cricket

Radio used to scream out commercials of Nijam Pakku, A1 cleaning powder, Ponvandu soap(my sis actually danced on stage to this one’s commercial…there I said it! She’s going to kill me now!!!), Narasus coffee, Shantha tilting wetgrinder

The special ads telecast by DD from time to time…
Mile sur mera tumhara, the no smoking ads, Ek Chidiya anek chidiya/ek, anek aur ekta…scripted and directed by Vijaya Mulay (boy, was this cute? :) …seriously one look at this video and you are back to your childhood)

Never understood most of what they said; but I thought these folks looked and sounded damn smart. Sumit Tandon, Neethi Ravindran, Minu (though a bit irritating with her Karnatak, Keral, Kannad etc.), Kaveri Mukherji,
Usha Albuquerque. And their regional counterparts, Shobana Ravi, Fatima, Sandhya Rajagopalan

Sunday ke Sunday
Sundays were special. You got up early not to finish your home work or to rush to school; but to catch Rangoli on time
And then hurry through your bath, breakfast to be right on time for he-man and the masters of the Universe at 9. 9:30 was for Ramayana/Mahabharata (it later shifted to 10 and also to weekdays primetime). Then at 11-ish you had ‘potli baba ki’.
There were a few more short lived series like glo friends, stone boy(loved it) etc.
Afternoons were regional language movies; don’t think I would watch an assamese/Bengali/oriya movie ever now.
Somewhere around 3 or 4, just before the Sunday evening movie, came Spidey swinging his way into the drawing room….and we used to dart from just about anywhere to watch that show.

Other bygone, long forgotten TV favourties
Oshin, Malgudi days (directed by late Shankar Nag…a cult to this day!), Wagle ki Duniya (one of the funniest!), Duck tales, Mr. Yogi, Byomkesh Bakshi, Flop Show, Mungeri lal ke haseen sapne, Surbhi, Bharat ek khoj, Street Hawk, Circus (One mister SRK was in this. So was Ashutosh Gowarikar!), Tandoori Nights, Jungle Book, Disney Show, Vikram Aur Vetal, Vishwamitra, Alif Laila, Chanakya, chitrahar, Chitramala, Gul Gulshan Gulfam, Saanjha Chulha, Tehkikaat (feat. The late director Vijay Anand, brother of Dev Anand), The Sword of Tipu Sultan, Hum panchi ek chawl ke……..


Seriously, whatever happened to DD?!

P.S: Its been long time since I posted anything... it is not the writers block... but Nandoo is hopeless in getting an internet connection at home and... my new opees doesnt allow me to blog :(

P.S.S: Nothing just like that! :P

Song: Aint no sunshine....

Mood: Cool