I am turning 40 in the next few months. So much has been lost in the debris of time, and yet inscribed in the memories. It is a travesty that we remember milestones yet forget the simpler times of childhood. I am suddenly experiencing a mixture of melancholy and nostalgia for the old DD serials, movies, and cartoons. Rooted in memory, these shows have evoked in me the warmth of simpler times. I have renewed appreciation for the value of what was once overlooked or forgotten.
For adults who fondly remember the golden age of Doordarshan (DD) in the 1990s, the program lineup was a delightful mix of intellect, comedy, and adventure. I was seeing the world through the eyes of a child alive to its sensations, yet protected from reality. I will mention a few DD programs forgotten or less remembered among people nowadays.
One such gem was Gucchhe, which, contrary to popular belief, wasn't an original Indian drama but rather the Hindi-dubbed version of Stories from My Childhood—a beautifully animated anthology of global fairy tales originally produced by Soviet studios. Another animation series, Superbook Classic, captivated me with a reimagining of Bible stories, where young protagonists traveled through time to witness key events in Christian scripture. And finally, the ever-popular Sindbad Jahaji kept imaginations alight with tales of treasure, monsters, and magical voyages. This was the Hindi-dubbed adaptation of the Japanese anime Arabian Nights: Sinbad's Adventures (1975). These animations weren’t just cartoons — they were gentle stories, subtly weaving morals, ethics, and culture into lessons that have stayed with me.
I had started watching obscure TV movies on the DD in childhood. One such movie, Papeeha (1993), was aired in December 1994. I searched for the movie in vain on the digital landscape and found the print only today. Similarly, I always remembered a scene from the film watched in 1990 (I was 5 years) on DD. In the scene, there is a senior citizen who gently rebukes a colleague for his idea of conducting a search campaign by kids for a pigeon. For the longest time, I couldn’t place it. A Sunday afternoon screening? A one-off festival telecast? thanks to a determined dive with Perplexity as my guide, the bird finally revealed itself. The film was Ankur Maina Aur Kabootar (1989). What a beautiful rediscovery this turned out to be. Directed by FTII graduate Madan Bawaria and produced by the Children’s Film Society of India in collaboration with the Mauritius Film Development Corporation, the film was set against the urgent cause of saving the endangered pink pigeon of Mauritius.
I once watched a movie about two elephants, but for the longest time, I couldn’t remember its name. It stayed in my memory, vivid yet unnamed, for nearly 30 years. The eureka moment came when I realized the elephant duo weren't mother and son, but father and son — and that cracked the code. Memory often eludes us, and over time, what we remember can become distorted, blending fiction with reality. Then, after all that time, I finally discovered its title: Kala Parvat (original title: Chyornaya Gora), a 1971 Soviet Indian co-production directed by Aleksandr Zguridi and M.S. Sathyu. It was a surreal moment—like reuniting with a long-lost piece of my childhood. It took me years of searching the internet, countless Google queries, and even taking help from AI tools to finally uncover its title two weeks back. Overjoyed, I announced the discovery to my mother and excitedly asked my son to watch the movie with me on YouTube. It was a beautiful moment that bridged three generations through a single, long-lost memory.
There was a serial named 'Prayas' creating awareness on environmental protection, but I can't find any digital footprint of the show now. I also liked to watch 'Ank Ajoobe'—hosted by Benjamin Gilani— where school teams competed in solving math challenges on national television, making numbers both fun and competitive. 'Ek Tha Rusty', based on Ruskin Bond's semi-autobiographical stories, transported viewers to the serene hills of Dehradun, where a boy named Rusty came of age in warm, slice-of-life episodes full of charm and simplicity. Meanwhile, 'Ek Se Badkar Ek' brought laughter into our lives with its comic setup.
Beyond fiction, I was amazed to watch the natural world in a TV serial: Secrets of the Sea, led by the legendary Jacques Cousteau, offered gripping undersea adventures with awe-inspiring visuals. This show was aired long before the widespread adoption of the internet, so online archiving wasn't a standard practice. Today, I can remember only the name and a memory. To rediscover such obscure memories is often to rediscover a part of yourself
I was in Class 9 when I started watching Ralph Bousfield: Uncharted Africa, aired as part of Discovery Hour on DD Metro, in which I followed the intrepid explorer through forests, deserts, and savannahs, capturing wildlife and tribal customs. For the past few years, I had been trying to recall the name of this series from memory and validate it on Google — often stumbling through the fog of forgotten details and failed searches — until finally, I recalled it, and it felt like rediscovering a long-lost piece of a puzzle from my past.
About 35 years ago, I came across a three-page summary of the book in a magazine called *Nandan*. I have forgotten most of it, except that it was a story of an Inuit boy. Years later, after an intense search online, I finally rediscovered the story of young Ivik. I completed reading Pipaluk Freuchen's book Ivik, den faderløse today. The joy of rediscovering something lost in the whirlwind of life and time lies in the revival of cherished memories and forgotten emotions.
DD itself has a vast archive, but only a fraction of its content, especially older niche shows, has been digitized and made publicly available online. A lot of the serials that are part of the childhood memories of millions have been lost during the analog-to-digital transformation. Together, these shows defined a generation of television that was wholesome, thoughtful, and quietly magical.
To share a common experience and memory is the spirituality that DD has offered to the 80s and the children of the 90s. They were once a source of joy in life, but now these memories seem far away. I was happy with the beauty of growing up in a time when life moved more slowly and hearts stayed open. It is a lesson in the inaccessibility of the past that was woven into the rhythm of my life, with the theme music of DD that
marked the hours like temple bells.
Thanks to Google Video — now rechristened as YouTube — and the many digital companions along the way like Google, AltaVista, Orkut, Facebook, and now Gemini and ChatGPT, my scattered memories slowly came together. Each search felt like a time capsule, until at last, I rediscovered that elusive piece of my past. As I write this blog post, I can’t help but feel a little bit old, stirred by the slow resurrection of emotions long buried in memory and restoring a sense of continuity and meaning.
Doordarshan Nostalgia:
1. https://oldidiotbox.blogspot.com/
2. https://www.optiondee.com/
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