TV shows I watched as a kid

Recently, I saw a post on Facebook where people were listing all the shows, cartoons and movies they watched as kids. I got inspired to write down my own list, and it kept growing and growing until I decided to add it here as a blog post. I was able to track down a few of the opening credits/themes on youtube for some of them, so I'll add links where possible. I don't know why once I read a few of the names, my faded memories just kept coming back -  I'd like to document them here so I don't forget them again.

Growing up, we had just one state-owned tv channel called PTV. It is surprising how many international shows PTV aired at the time in addition to our own dramas and news shows. But people in our country were either lazy or didn't have the resources for dubbing, so all shows were shown in original English.  Here are the children's shows and cartoons, and other shows that I remember:

- Fraggle Rock (usually shown early morning on weekdays): very faded memory of watching this show when getting ready to go to school

- Wind in the Willows (the BBC TV series): the song is so hauntingly beautiful and sad! My dad loved this show and made me watch it in the mornings when I was having breakfast before going to school. It is a stop action animation, and my dad's favorite

- Thundercats (usually shown in the evenings on weekdays): I loved snarf so much. But I was scared of Mumm-Ra - I once had a nightmare where the vacuum cleaner in the corner turned in to Mumm-Ra and my grandma just couldn't understand who/what it was while she was trying to calm me down. 

- Silverhawks: very faded memory of watching this show, some older cousins probably watched it and I remembered it when I saw the opening credits again

- Chronicles of Narnia (BBC TV series): Loved this show so much, it was generally shown on weekends

- the Jetsons: my Mom loved this show and would put it on for me. I was fascinated by Rosey the robot

- Gumby: another one of my mother's favorite show that we watched together

- Rentaghost (BBC series): when I got a little older, I was really into this show - it was such fun

- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: I remember for some reason I wanted a Ninja Turtle, the red one, Raphael... and I was very ill those days and kept asking for it. My parents got a Ninja Turtle pencil sharpener from a stationery shop for me. I didn't particularly like it, but at least I had a Ninja turtle that was a pencil sharpener from the waist down, and it was cool to show off at school. 

- ALF: I didn't understand English very well, but I loved the alien and thought it was hilarious.

- Amazing Stories: my parents watched this series, I think it used to air on the weekends and I watched it with them

- Ainak Wala Jin (the genie with glasses): the only Urdu tv show for kids back then, and I think still the best one created by PTV. A Jinn is banished from his tribe because of his failing eyesight, and ends up alone in a busy city among humans. A young boy and his dad help the Jinn get eyeglasses so he can see better, and he becomes friends with the boy and his little sister. There are other Jinns, a Wizard and a Witch racing to catch the near-sighted Jinn and trap him in a bottle, and fairies who travel on clouds. So much fun!

- The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest: I was a little older when this show came on, and I was obsessed with it! The Intro theme is still my favorite

Here are some other cartoons and shows that I used to watch on PTV: Tom & Jerry, Looney Tunes, Sesame Street, Captain Planet, Smurfs, Dexter's laboratory, Addams Family, Simpsons, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Full House. 

PTV also aired news slots from BBC, CNN and Deutsche Welle. We got a Hollywood movie on Saturday night and a special movie (either Home Alone or Honey I shrunk the kids) around Christmas and New Years. Shows I was absolutely allergic to were Miami Vice and the Flash that were shown on weekend afternoons. 

 Today I have logged in from my brand new laptop and made a promise to myself to revive this blog. Not for anyone else to read, but purely to push myself to take up writing again. I think I've been silent too long, and I got really scared about losing touch with a major part of my personality. Again, it feels like a brand new beginning and I am not so sure what I will write about. It could be about current events, music maybe, a few good films I have seen, maybe the pandemic - but I can't say for sure. I aim to write at least one blog entry per week just to keep practicing. 

My old laptop, a Dell Inspiron called Hunny, has long been dead and forgotten, but I remember Hunny today because I typed my first ever blog post with his help. His replacement was a Macbook Pro I got in 2015, but somehow that Macbook Pro always felt like a stranger, someone I was on tentative good terms with. Things have a way of picking up our vibes and this new Macbook took it personally. I never gave Macbook Pro a name, he was not Hunny and not a close friend. Macbook Pro dealt with me like a friendly neighbor or distant relative, available to help out when I absolutely needed it but otherwise keeping his distance. Part of the reason of our relationship's coldness was my own disinterest in getting to know him. Life had changed gears, I had an iPhone who was like a shadow, clinging to me wherever I went and doing most of the work I needed, there was a job and career, a place to call home, a citizenship to acquire, so much to do. Macbook Pro helped but in a backup capacity, and always somewhat grudgingly. Still I am really glad for Macbook Pro's services.

He finally decided to end things with me on Valentine's Day, 2021 - after a good 5 years of a kind-of friends relationship. I tried to fix him, looked up how much it would cost to appease him, and bring him back to his senses, but he was unwilling and wanted to quit. The money wasn't worth his tantrum or silent treatment.

I saved enough money to get this new Macbook, this time an Air instead of a Pro, since I don't think I need such an advanced laptop and it might take offense at my mundane tasks. This time I am committed to being good friends with Henry, and I hope he likes his name. I have big plans for Henry, he is supposed to help me for the next few years in my creative pursuits and I will try to limit how much the iPhone tries to interfere and cling unnecessarily. So Henry, this is the first one I typed with your help - we are off to a good start, my friend! 😊

Things I thought as a Kid

Things I used to believe when I was a kid:

• I thought we lived inside the world, not on it. I once asked my mother why we couldn’t see the floors above our heads where the people in the north lived. Not until my parents bought me a small globe and explained that we lived and walked on the surface did I understand this concept. 
• an older cousin once convinced me that vhs tapes could record our dreams, you just had to sleep with the tape under your pillow and if you played it in the morning, your dream would be on tv, but only if you woke up really really early. Alas, I was never early enough. 
• another cousin convinced me that pink tissue paper, properly crumpled up and twisted around a few times was an easy way to make cotton candy at home. I don’t know how he got me duped, but I embarrassed my parents a couple of times at other peoples houses, asking if I could borrow that pink tissue paper to eat as cotton candy. 
• I used to think people went to restaurants to read a book and then have food. Like you sit around a table, read the book, and then order. It was extremely important. I often demanded the waiter give me a book to read whenever we went out to eat.  
• i thought there was a special cloud that collected stray balloons that floated away in the sky, they probably gathered into a single colorful cloud and lived happily ever after. 
• Because I was so scared of lightening and thunderstorms, my dad convinced me that the lightening was just a flash of God’s camera, He was taking pictures from the sky. 
• I believed my dolls and toys had feelings, if I didn’t hug them or play with them equally every day, they would feel sad and hurt and lonely. I did have favorites, but I always tried to make up to the not-so-favorite ones. 
• I thought little tiny people lived inside the tv all day. 
• I thought elevators could go anywhere in a short time. When my aunt got married, she stayed at a hotel for a few days with her husband before leaving for New York. I thought we went all the way to New York in the elevator to see her when we visited her in the hotel. 
• I thought London, England, and Britain were three different countries. 
• I thought Iraq and Iran were the same country, only spelled differently by different people.
• I thought Kenya was another name for all of Africa.
• I thought lakes were just stations for rivers and streams to rest in a place, like train stations. 
• I thought MQM and PPP (the political parties) were actually NTM and PTV, the two television stations. 
• I thought cats were people in disguise, always keeping an eye on us. This was probably inspired by my aunt telling me she went to my school every day as a cat, and she used to sit on the wall and see me around, so I wasn’t lonely. 
• I also thought all teachers were supposed to wear heels, and their hair in a bun, and chew gum after lunch, this was all part of their job description. 
• I thought writers sat and wrote the books all day, every single copy of the book by their own hand, and also colored the illustration. 
• I thought things we bought at the store, like cake and pudding mixes, would come out looking like the pictures on their boxes. When my mother made them, they never looked anything like on the box. I was always so disappointed. 
• I thought some eyeglasses could make you see right through the floor. This is probably because I often borrowed (stole) my grandfather’s glasses when he was taking a nap in the afternoon, and they made everything look a little hollowed out. 
• The Morven Gold cigarette ad with the tag line “har dum tawana” (english: Always strong) made me run from the room every time it came on. I believed the guys enjoying the cigarette and grinning into the screen were some kind of monsters like the dracula with their pointed flashy teeth. 
• I got annoyed whenever my uncle sang the song “gorey rang ka zamana” by Vital Signs for me (which he did often)  I thought he was making fun of me.
• The same uncle used to dissuade me from touching his shiny-rimmed glasses by his classic quote “don’t touch the glasses” in a sing-song voice. I used to repeat the rhyme anytime I saw another person wearing glasses and tried to touch them anyways. I thought it was necessary and I was asking permission. 

Now I think about it, I was pretty gullible. 

Why kids don't read

This is for Sadia

Why kids/students don't read:
They have not been introduced to reading properly. Unfortunately kids view reading as a "chore" or "work" and not as a "fun" activity like playing sports or playing with toys. Secondly, the stories kids have access to are also "boring"- I mean the assigned reading in class. The teacher is boring, the environment in the class is boring and sleepy, kids are forced to stand up and read aloud- which is a nightmare. Third, there is more emphasis on spelling, new words, underlining and bringing heavy dictionaries to school and trying to find the meaning of those new words. It is highly discouraging. I almost hated reading at school because of this. Lastly, some kids just aren't readers at all. They don't have any natural inclination towards books and stories, you can't force them to like something they don't.

How to inculcate reading habits in young children:
Parents/Grandparents/home environment are vital for young children to take an interest in reading. There is no replacement for these factors, not even school. Each child is interested in "stories" from a young age, and parents can utilize this interest for an easy transition from "story-telling" to "reading". Parents can limit watching movies to after the kids have finished reading a book. Also, avoiding "preachy" books with a clear-cut "Moral" at the end of the story goes a long way. Having a story "preach" makes the fun activity into something less fun. At school providing too many aids, (drawings/animations/using props) actually spoils the fun in imagining the story as it is read.
Finally, limiting kids with downright stupid "library" rules such as only allowing them to borrow books if they have purchased the library "bag" or brought it with them on the designated day should be avoided. I remember clearly how many times I was told I could not borrow a book from the school library simply because I forgot to bring the stupid library bag with me. I also remember the librarian being a strict lady who would not let me touch certain interesting books because they were for "reference" only (Illustrated history books, books on pyramids and books on rainforests were out of question- I was only allowed to borrow books from a selected shelf).

How can reading be made fun:
Again, some kids are naturally inclined to reading books, others simply don't like it that much. It is nice to encourage those who have the natural bent in them to read more. On the other hand, forcing non-readers will only push them further away.
Having interesting books is also key. If it is boring there is no way a kid will like it. No matter what grown ups think. Urdu books in particular suffer a lot from the boring syndrome. We simply do not have interesting enough stories for the kids. Also, forcing your own culture on kids just to counter the stories from the West is not a good option. I fell in love with "reading" by reading the "Wide Range Readers" series...now they have been conveniently chucked out of school because they apparently converted kids to Western thinking and Christianity. That's just stupid. Don't bring religion and culture in to reading please.

Having separate spaces/cafes for readers to socialise:
No, I don't think these are necessary. Socializing and interaction can't be forced. Having artificial conversations to fit into a "cliché" is not a good thing. I do believe there should be open public spaces where people can meet each other and enjoy a cup of coffee. The book lovers will come when they feel like it.

Your idea:
Yes, I think it's a good initiative.  Not all kids are lucky enough to have a family environment or parents who encourage reading. Some kids do have it in them and they need a push in the right direction, so yes I agree with that. Bringing story telling and "reading" as an activity in the classroom will encourage these kids to pick up a book.

Monetary value:
I don't know how to answer this question, really.

Schools/Parents should pay for activities:
Schools should pay. Parents should not, except if they want to for activities outside school. The costs should not be outrageous. Book fairs at schools are so ridiculously expensive, parents just buy flashy looking books for their brats to show off. That's the unfortunate reality.

Making it sustainable:
This will take time, efforts. It will not take a few years to change the scene, it will take decades to make reading a success with the masses. We have a long way to go. We need to read more so our kids will see it and learn. We need teachers to read more, books to be cheaper, writers to write more, and parents to take an interest in reading with their kids too. It takes the whole community, not just a few scattered activities in schools. We also need more libraries. We need to make reading fashionable, and not an escape for the lonely child to spend time at lunch.

Boring characters- interesting stories

Exercise for failing writers: Describe an ordinary character, which comes across as boring and mundane, in an interesting manner. 

Ans:

Mr. Barry leads an ordinary life. So ordinary in fact, that you would barely notice his existence even if he was your next-door neighbour. He has a typically forgettable face, no charming or disarming features to talk about, and no distinctive quality about his person or personality. Everything from his name to his shoes and umbrellas are extremely ordinary. He hardly has anything interesting to say, and he could care less about what exceptional things were going on around him. He doesn’t really see the need for any improvement in his ordinary house. It has an ordinary couch and sofa set, a very ordinary wooden table, an ordinary rug and an ordinary fireplace that is usually turned off. If you happen to peek into his house, and it is an extremely rare occurrence that you would care enough to do so, you’d see a perfectly ordinary kitchen with little to spare. His bedroom upstairs has a single bed, a dresser and a closet. There is nothing of any distinction or importance that might make you wonder about him in any way.

Each morning, he gets up at 7, takes his bath, dresses in greys or browns, and heads downstairs to have his breakfast. One hard-boiled egg and a single buttered slice of bread accompany his tea. He neatly cleans his place-mat and teacup before leaving for work. His car is a typical sedan you would see on any road, with the colour so faded that it’s essentially colorless. Not transparent, mind you, but just an unidentifiable colour, somewhere on the scale between grey and brown and specks of red. He drives carefully, and seems to enjoy blending in with the rest of the cars on the highway. His office is a plain and simple desk-chair-cubicle, and he has requested not to have any technological annoyance within his reach. If you care enough, you could read the sign overhead on the main street, and see that it is a Law firm. He spends his day reading catalogued archives of old cases and making notes in boring brown ledgers in his neat small handwriting. His lunch is a simple cucumber slice sandwich taken with mineral water. At the end of the day, he drives home listening to classical music on the radio. He turns on the porch light as he comes in, and every alternate day he waters his 8 pots of mundane creeping plants. Today is not the plant-watering day. He picks up the newspaper by his door, and chucks it directly into the recycle bin. He changes into his night clothes, prepares his usual supper of buttered bread, boiled vegetables, and canned meat chunks. From exactly 7pm to 9pm, Mr. Barry watches television. He likes to see some action on the sports channel, then on to the business news drawl, and finally he watches the weather report for the next day. He turns off the television, satisfied that nothing extraordinary about the world and its goings on has reached him in his ordinariness. He goes downstairs to switch off lights, checks the lock on his front door, climbs back upstairs and gets ready for bed. He is fast asleep around 10pm.

Mr. Barry would be quite unhappy to be noticed by you. He would also feel uncomfortable if you were found peeking into his living room, or trying to focus your binoculars into his bedroom windows. He prefers to be left alone while shopping for his usual groceries, and if any of you people come up to him to say hello, he’d rather avoid looking into your eyes and responding. He values personal privacy above all other things, and he is grateful that his is not invaded often.

People like Mr. Barry give authors a hard time trying to make their lives sound interesting. You cannot imagine him to be a wizard or a stranded alien from another planet (although that seems to be the case).  Perhaps you think he’s solving some important case at his workplace. No, nothing like that. Mr. Barry has made it a point to work only in tax or insurance related cases. If anything remotely unusual comes his way, he likes to pick up the file and leave it at his colleagues’ desk to work on. People in his office are grateful for having him. They can place all mundane and boring tasks on his desk, and he’s more than happy to work on them. The neighbours too would be grateful for having him live amongst them, if they ever noticed him, because he always takes out trash on time, waters his plants, shovels his driveway, does not have annoying kids screaming down the street, nor does he have a gossiping wife who is always hosting barbeques. The cashier at the grocery store is especially happy to have him as her customer. He usually buys the same stuff and gives exact change. He doesn’t bother taking the receipts, so she simply pulls it out and throws it in the bin under her counter. The mailman always sighs with relief when he comes across Mr. Barry’s postbox. There is never any post, so his task is easy.

Mr. Barry probably has never bothered anyone in his entire life, and I suppose one day he’d grow old and sick, and would die quietly. Although, I wonder if people will be bothered enough to come to his funeral when that happens. Sometimes, I often wonder if he is happy the way he is. When I peek into his living room during his TV watching time, I see him smile at random infomercials on the shopping tv, or nod at the official looking guy telling us about bad weather tomorrow. At times like these, I feel Mr. Barry has surrounded himself with the comfort and happiness that is enough for him. So, you see... if you peek inside, you might get bored. But if you ever get caught by Mr. Barry when you’re prowling around his mundane plants and pots under his porch light, well... that maybe an interesting story. 

The big Mars candy bar

 When I was a little girl, my parents used to give me an allowance of 10 rupees. It was actually fixed per day, but every afternoon when I came back from school, I would put that unused 10 rupee note carefully on my desk, in case I needed to spend it the next day. We were far from poor, but my parents taught me early on the importance and value of having money. 10 rupees in those times was quite a lot (according to me). I wasn't stingy, but I was happy with whatever lunch I got from home, and only once a week I would indulge in getting something (Candy or a drink) from the school canteen. So, basically, 10 rupees were enough to last a week. My story goes like this:

I have a very clear memory of walking one evening to a nearby general store with my mother. After she had bought all the items on her list, she asked me if I wanted anything. My head could reach barely above the counter, but I scanned the candy and chocolate jars carefully. I settled on a big Mars bar, the biggest I had seen yet. There was another child right next to me on the counter, looking greedily at where my finger was pointing. This child was a little beggar girl, probably the daughter of a local maidservant or maasi; she was wearing old clothes, and a rag as a shawl on her head. She was older than me and a bit taller. I remember her yellow bleached hair peeking from beneath the rag shawl, and her greedy look as she too stared at the big Mars candy bar.

My mother asked the price casually. Rs 20 was the answer. I turned suddenly towards her and I said I didn't want it. I chose a smaller candy bar for Rs 10 that I used to buy often. “I want this one, Ammi”. Rs. 20 was too much to spend on a candy bar, I thought in my childish brain. ‘Ammi gets so many other important things for the kitchen in that amount. I could buy a book in that much money, why just a big candy bar?’ I thought.

 My mother asked me if I was sure, and she got me the smaller candy. As we picked up our shopping bags and turned to leave the counter, the little beggar child demanded that big Mars bar from the counter person. She quickly took out two 10 rupee notes from somewhere in her shawl, and grabbed the big bar. She gave me a look of pure superiority as she walked out of the store ahead of us.

This incident is marked vividly in my memory. It has changed the way I view the lifestyle of our ‘poor’.

What makes you a Liberal?

Most people I know, are generally of the idea that believing in liberalism is just an excuse for being immoral. If somebody comes across as liberal-leaning, he/she is immediately cast into a wine-drinking /gambling/promiscuous stereotype. I have been thinking long and hard on this topic, and I have come to the conclusion that there is a reason why people believe in this stereotype. And the reason is the behaviour of some of the so-called ‘liberals’ themselves (don’t scoff me, there are plenty of those around).

People, and especially my generation, are most likely confused about what being a liberal means. Again, I come to the words and meaning debate: a word can have several different meanings and images attached to it, but they are not necessarily accurate. So here are a few thought-provoking questions to ask yourself:

Does voting for a Liberal government make you a liberal?

Does wearing a certain type of clothing make you a liberal?

Does studying in certain schools make you one?

Does scoffing the ‘conservative’-types make you one?

Does glorifying certain personalities make you a liberal?

Does your indifference to religion make you a liberal?

Or is it simply about allowing yourself a justification for doing things that go against your cultural norms and traditions? (i.e. alcohol consumption, going to bars/clubbing, you get my drift...)

Simply googling the term ‘liberalism’ brings me to its core idea: the belief in importance of equal rights and freedom/liberty for every human being. This... Is...It.

A person who believes in equal rights for all humans on this planet, and believes in every person’s right to freedom, is a liberal. Frankly, without going into a philosophical debate, and adding tons of layered meaning to this rather simple way of thinking... anybody can be a liberal. A person can dress any way they like, and still hold the highest importance to these two fundamental aspects of liberalism. Similarly, nobody can judge another person based on outward appearance, about how conservative or liberal they might be. And if you are a true liberal at heart, you would stop yourself right before you make that judgement.

So does it sound like such a bad thing now? I don’t think so.

“Live and Let Live” and come to the liberal side!