Thursday 15 November 2012

The TB6 Era


We've grown up without any internet, computers or video games. On the Sunday’s we used to play cricket match and we literally played at each and every corner of our hometown and with  every possible kid in town, right from rubber ball to leather deuce ball. Everything was perfectly fine, but that time late teenagers were deprived of some basic entertainment. Most of them had no other options, except for those Sunday morning shows and after experiencing few shows, everyone felt little cheap and didn't like to continue further. The pathetic situation was not only limited to the young adults, but also to the elders as well. I think the middle aged people got some sort of consolation in the form of Friday late night movies on Doordarshan.  The censor board must had been little generous that time, as I can recollect few glimpses of the Friday night movies. But those stuffs will definitely be considered as peanuts by today's generation. 

After the introduction of cable television, guys tried their luck on some programs like Santa Barbara, MTV Grind, etc, but soon it got boring. Few people had the luxury to keep VCR at home and they rented video cassettes whenever they wanted. Sometimes grown up kids used to rent VCR on special occasions like “Saraswati Pooja”, as the Pooja is specially for students, so parents usually didn't argue much if their kids stayed out of home, even during the night for the Pooja preparation and celebration. Guys usually used to rent VCR along with 5 or 6 cassettes for 24 hours. The list usually included one Bruce Lee kind of movie, one Hollywood action movie, 2 Bollywood blockbusters and 2 entertaining movies for the night. But thanks to the electricity department, few of the movies always remained unseen. 

Now in  those dry days, there came an Avatar in the form of “TB6” channel to enliven not only the late teenagers, but also the middle-aged, as well as the older people. The channel was of Russian origin and was broadcast-ed by cable operator in many areas across India, for almost over half a decade. The channel had given immense entertainment and spread love and happiness among the common man and beyond any doubt must have contributed a lot to India’s population boost.

TB6’s main attraction was Playboy branded movies on Saturday nights. In our locality the cable operators broadcast-ed it very late and people there could enjoy the magnificent channel just for couple of years, before the government decided to ban it. Although the channel was live only after midnight, but it had enormous viewership. TB6 had an intoxicating effect on many of us, as it was the only source for the kind of entertainment we looked for those days. I knew about TB6 much before I had actually watched it. The channel was telecast-ed in BRPL Township much earlier. I was able to “Darshan” it very late, only when it started to broadcast in our locality.

During those days, we usually used to play cricket match with one team or the other on Sundays. Earlier we used to start our match by 9 AM, but later, as few of our seniors became so much addicted to Saturday late night TB6, we could have started our match only after 10 AM. Most of us knew about TB6 and about the Saturday night playboy, but it was extremely difficult for us to have had watched it late night. Few of our friends were extremely lucky, as they used to sleep in the TV room itself. Michael was one such lucky fella and he never used to miss the Saturday late night erotica. Quite often he used to narrate us the exotic stories he used to watch. Padu was so excited, that on few occasions, he secretly used to go to Michael’s house in the middle of the night, to experience the Saturday night sensual magic.

32 comments:

  1. ahahahhahhaah....sala likh raha hai re bhai tu...

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    1. Kyun Boro? Bohut kuch yaad aa gaya kya tereko? :)

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  2. I am not of that era, my childhood had some gadgets but I wish I was a part of the previous generation, i.e the era that you mentioned & portrayed so well :D I am not a gadget person & would have loved living the life without any at all :) NIce post! thanks, take care!

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    1. Thanks a lot Tanya. Life was quite simple and slow that time. People were happy watching Doordarshan and really enjoyed whatever bullshit they used to telecast :) People interactions was much more those days with fiends,neighbors. Life is little different now a days, it has become too fast and little complicated, even in small towns :)

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    2. Very true. I wish I was born in the era maybe years before this one... I like simple things to the hell complicated things we posses now :(

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    3. Hmmmm... can't help it :) I hope we would be in good health and experience hell lot of changes in future.

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  3. Agree on the VCR part, I remember friends collecting money to rent out a cassette for weekends ,gathering at one place ,those days actually brought people together rather than today's social networking concept.Golden era indeed,, the 80-90s kids had the best childhood I bet

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    1. Yes, it was definitely a Golden Era :) During our childhood watching movie was basically a social get together. Even the elders used to rent VCR on occasions like "New Year's Eve" or during some festival. BTW "Mumbai Madrasi" or "Random Shit" seem to be very interesting, will definitely go through it.

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  4. I am surly from that era then :) i remmeber the VCP the top loading ones .. only the players .. later they started recording tooooooo.. the weekends when we rented and so many movies ot watch..

    kids in 70's 80's had the best childhood and I was one of them for sure


    Bikram's

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    1. Yeah Bikram, You are also one of the lucky one :) It seems u even had the luxury of VCP :) we usually used to rent it sometimes. Good old days ......

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  5. you've captured the days of the rented VCR and 'cassettes' beautifully! Remember this stage of my life so vividly :-)

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    1. Thanks a lot dude. So, u r also from that era :) Remember the sunday evening movies telecasted on doordarshan? people were so crazy about movies that time. :)

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  6. awh ! your post actually took back to those good olden days, indeed beautiful moments of watching movies on rented vcr with frnds.
    thanks for freshnin up the memories,,, :)

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    1. Thanks a lot Aswathy. Glad to know that u r also from that era and really happy that this post able to refresh ur good old memories.

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  7. Oh, those were the days! Renting VCRs and watching movies, but very occasionally and with all family and neighbors watching together!! Never heard of the TB6 channel though! :D

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    1. Yes Shilpa, watching movies, specially latest movies was a little big thing those days. I am little surprised that u never heard about the great channel, it seems the channel was more popular among the guys :)

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    2. Yes, you are right! I checked with my husband, and he was aware of it! :D

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    3. he he :) I'am very much delighted to know that :)

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  8. During my college days we just had black and white TV sets and not everyone had it. We didn't have. However people who had TV would invite us to come and watch the movie on Sundays or Saturdays, I don't remember, and we used to go and and watch some stupid movie aired by the Doordarshan, along with a whole lot of other invitees too.
    Can't imagine how we tried to entertain ourselves in those days.
    Frankly speaking, i don't miss those days, and i am happy we have progressed to the extent, that even a common man these days can afford a fridge, a color TV and a DVD player, a mobile or two, and also a two wheeler.

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    1. Yes Rama, we have progressed a lot. But somehow I miss those days. We had so much fun, we still have fun though :) But those days were special and I have lot of good memories. It's for sure that it would be highly impossible for us to live in such drastic condition now a days :)

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  9. I am from the TB6 era and the REN TV :P So true :D

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    1. Yeah, REN TV was also there but tb6 was much more popular in our home town :)

      Thanks for visiting dude!

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  10. Ha ha ha....nice post Jahid :)
    I just realized the smile in my face while reading the post...reminded me of those VCR days...infact I remember a few shows in Hostel 1 and 2 and in most of those, you can hear Raja shouting "Oi pees phaale nasabi dei" (Hey, nobody looks back) ;)

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    1. Thanks Bana Da :) Really nice to see U comment out here. Pees phalle sabo kio mana korisile? :)

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  11. Can anyone gine a list of playboy branded movies shown on Ren Tv late night...

    I cant remember this movie..but it had 4 women practicing witchcraft...ultimately one women betrays them and as a result of magic turns into a statue at the end..Can anyone tell me wat movie this is?

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    1. Haha Sanjay :) It seems U would like to revisit Ur old fantasies :) Thanks for visiting out here dude!

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  12. Another movie where there are hot vampires all over..

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  13. awesome post Jahid, I remember all the stuff you have mentioned. Even TB6 *wink* *wink*.

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    1. Thanks Vikas, glad U liked the post and could refresh Ur good old memories. Thanks a lot for visiting out here!

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  14. Nice post ,i remember those days ,u refresh my memory .TB6 was fun times omg it was mission to wake up late nights without letting anybody know ,and wait the right time,haha , i move to to states ,but this post bring my childhood memories back .those days where fun ,ty jahid

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    1. Thanks Rohit :) Glad U enjoyed the post and could refresh your good old memories. Yes, many of us experienced those sleepless nights :) Sometimes we were very unfortunate and even after waiting whole night we couldn't satisfy out eyes. Thanks a lot for visiting out here dude !!

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