They prefer life, uninterrupted

Nilanjana Sengupta / TNN / Aug 23, 2006, 02:30 IST

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Twenty-one-year-old Kunal Majgaokar does not remember when his mother discarded the 14-inch black-and-white television set.

MUMBAI: There were actually people in this city whose lives had not been touched by the cable TV imbroglio. There's a simple reason for this; they have not had anything to do with television for quite some time.
Twenty-one-year-old Kunal Majgaokar does not remember when his mother discarded the 14-inch black-and-white television set. He and his elder brother gave up watching television 12 years ago after his parents refused to subscribe to cable TV.
Four successive board examinations were cited as a reason.Not watching television soon turned into a habit and the Majgaokar brothers found themselves enjoying more play and reading time.
"We catch up on major sporting action on TV at our friends' homes or restaurants," he says. His father, Kishore Majgaokar, says that even if someone offered him a free television, he would not take it.

"I noticed too many negatives during the one-month trial with cable TV. We were not talking to each other, my eyes were feeling the strain, my sleep was getting disrupted because I was staying up to watch cricket, our eating habits went for a toss and we were giving up other pleasures," he says.
Twenty-year-old Mehul Seth realised that early in life. His family watches only Doordarshan. Television, he says, is the root of all distractions that lead students astray.

"My daily quota of news, and a bit of sport, is all I need," the engineering student says. Lawyer Niranjan Pandit, too, agrees that television affects family life.
"It's a big nuisance," he says. When he was growing up, his tennis-loving family would hire a television once a year for the final week of Wimbledon.
"People used to laugh at us because we did not own a TV but we were too busy playing football and tennis to miss it," he says. In 1995, four years after his marriage, a client gifted the Pandits their first television set.
"I was shocked when I saw the television box outside my home. Now my 12-year-old son is its biggest consumer. But his viewing hours are strictly regulated."
Exams are a common reason why some families prefer to have their TV screens go on the blink. Shankar Natarajan, father of two teenaged daughters, withdrew subscription to the cable operator last year; his elder daughter was studying in class X.
Now his younger daughter is preparing for her board exams.
(With inputs from Krishnaraj Iyengar)

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