Duck Tales on Internet Versus Duck Tales on Doordarshan (a Run Down the Memory Lane with Gen Z)

Ananta koti dandavat at the lotus feet of param pujya Swamiji. I am really grateful and full of gratitude for all the divine energy quanta you are sending my way. It’s like I have tune into the channel of life with high resonance frequency making me highly energetic. Swamiji you have given me wings (of course without REDBULL😉😉). I just want to have a physical darshan of you and have a sastang pranam at your feet. Mentally I have already done it. With your blessings let me start today’s post.

Few months ago, my son Sahil was watching some cartoon series on TV. Thanks to Sahil, I have become familiar with quite a lot of cartoon series like Mr. Bean, Pink Panther, Odd buds, Grizzy and the Lemings and so on. (Fun Fact: Chinese cartoons were already banned in our house well before the Indo-China standoff😜). If I write down all of the cartoon series, the blog will become full and all the parents who are annoyed with their kids glued to all the cartoon series will slap me (at least mentally!) and I may get up with a bruised cheek next morning!🤔🤔🤕

By the way, Sahil hurled a question at me, “Papa what cartoon series did you watch during your childhood?” It was really an amazing question. It drove me to my childhood days when we had only Doordarshan channel for our infotainment that too with a dipole antenna for receiving the signal. Sometimes, the antenna would go for a tailspin marring the entire watching experience. Real pity! 😔😔😔I replied that our generation grew up with Mowgli (Jungle Book), Duck tales and Tail Spin (Baloo and Mrs. Mahalingam) cartoon series. Hey there, did it ring a bell in your head?

Yes, Jungle book was the amazing Cartoon series with a kid (Mowgli) growing with animals in a jungle when accidentally his parents died. The evil Sher Khan💀 would always be after him to finish Mowgli, while Bhalu, Baghira, Kaa, Hathi, Raksha❤️ (Mowgli’s adoptive mother) were trying to protect him. The title song was so catchy that it would cheer up the lazy Sunday Mornings. Sahil interrupted “Why only Sunday? Could you not watch it on You Tube on demand as and when you liked😱😱😱?”

I answered that we did not have the luxury of internet back then, let alone you tube🧐! If the readers can remember, in the initial days, there used to be dial-up network with a strange sound during the connection establishment. The speed would be really amazing, like it took about 5 minutes to load a picture of some kilobytes size. Was that not really fast!!!🤪🤪 Then I explained Sahil about Duck Tales. How there was kanjoos Mr. Mac D (Scrooge Mc Duck) with a huge treasury (tehkhana) , his 3 nephews (Huey, Dewey and Louie), the awesome Launch Pad Mc Quack (who could crash any object that could fly😜!), a semi mad scientist called Gyro and other character including the glorious Donald Duck with a strange voice.

I also told Sahil that Doordarshan launched a second channel called DD Metro on which this series used to be telecasted for half an hour in the evening. We used to run back from school as fast as possible to watch them. But sometimes, my father would be angry and would not allow to switch on the TV. Sahil was surprised that we had to take permission from our parents to watch TV, as he never has to😱. I told him the bravery which we showed to approach the TV in a soundless manner tiptoeing all the way and switching on the TV in stealth manner, then watching the series with minimal sound possible🤫🤫.

We used to be caught at times also and at that time we were threatened that our name from schools will be cut the next day and we would start working in the nearby hotel as a hotel boy 🥺🥺cleaning all the dishes if found again committing the mistake. The TV screen (CRT screen, stands for Cathode Ray Tube) was totally different from the present LCD and LED screens.

Our TV had a specific fault that, even after switching off the TV, there would be a dot mark visible😤😤 on the centre of the screen owing to the aging electron gun hitting the fluorescent screen. (We had a Black and White TV) When I used to see my dad approaching an illegal TV watching session, I used to switch it off, but that nasty dot was sufficiently conclusive evidence of my crime unlike the third umpire’s inconclusive decision against a controversial catch during the ongoing T20 series!😉😜🤪 Even if I posed with open book as if trying to become the next Civil Service Exam topper, I would be caught and have the same hotel boy story getting repeated or a renewed version with an enhanced vision of garage worker in a torn dress with grease all over my body, no water to drink, appearing a little latter🧐🧐☹️!!

Anyway, coming back to the topic, Sahil asked me to explore a bit on Duck Tales and we started exploring the same on you tube. I was totally astonished to see his enthusiasm to watch the classic cartoon series. He liked it in the same manner as I used to and till date liking it❤️❤️❤️. The episodes were so fresh in my mind that as if somebody switched on the time machine sending me back to the golden days of my childhood. Now we both watch Duck Tales together and finished almost all the episodes😁😁😁.

Few months ago, my father was there with us. He told me smilingly, “you also infected Sahil with the Duck Serial!”.

Yes, History repeats like this and genes get transferred from one generation to another generation via the wisdom being carried by the DNA strands. (I am very poor in Biology😦😦, so forgive me🙏 if I have made any wrong statement about DNA).

Now Sahil realized how fortunate he is✅. How much technology he is having on his fingertips. That is what impressed me the most i.e. to feel grateful for what you are having instead of complaining about what you do not have.

PS: I am an ardent lover of Disney’s classical cartoons and very much in love with Micky Mouse, Mini Mouse, Pluto (the dog), Goofy and the classic silly symphony series with nice short stories like three little pigs, Red riding hood, the cricket and the ants story. I think those classic ones are so sweet that everyone will fall in love.

With loads of love and gratitude for reading the article.🙏🙏🙏