A Visit to a T.V. Station

Life is a composition of various experiences experienced by a man right from his infancy. These experiences shape his future and have a lasting impact on his mind. The opportunities that he gets and grabs in his childhood make the foundation of his life and reflect the direction his life will take whatever the case may be the main thing is that the experiences of the childhood occupy a very special seat in our emotional life.

During my school days when I was studying in the sixth standard, the director of our school Mrs Manmohan Kaur Bedi, who was also working as an anchor with Doordarshan for the kid’s show ‘Jhilmil Taare’ decided to take the toppers of all the classes to the Doordarshan station at Jalandhar for the show Jhilmil. Fortunately, I was also on the list. Mrs. Bedi asked us to wear bright clothes as bright colours look good on the television screen. She told us that we were going to be a part of the Vaisakhi special episode of the show. We were given certain dialogues and quotations about Vaisakhi to learn.

The next day we reached the school at around seven-thirty. Exactly at eight, we, a group of ten students accompanied by Mrs. Bedi left for Jalandhar. Some of us were enjoying the journey while others were memorizing the lines given to us. We reached there around ten. The moment our van stopped there, there were big smiles on every face. We were all very excited to go inside the Doordarshan centre,

Situated in Jalandhar, Doordarshan station is a big building with an old history. When we went inside, initially we found it like any other government building. On the ground floor where we waited for some time, there was a big and beautiful painting of some young Punjabi boys performing Bhangra. Since there was still some time left for the shooting to begin, we were allowed to take a round of the building.

Accompanied by our director, we went round the whole building. There were rooms with different numbers allotted to them. There were different rooms in which different programmes were shot. There was a room meant for the shooting of DD news. A room adjoining it was the one where journalists selected and scripted the news. The room where Jhilmil Taare was to be shot was a very big room. On one side of the room the furniture that is used as the background for the solo songs or group songs, was kept. On the other side, the tables and a dias for the quiz contest were kept. There was a big rolling camera and a lot of lights of different types. There was a section of the room where the whole control panel was set up to record and edit the programme.

There was a huge hall that contained the furniture which can make a full house if assembled together. There were fake trees, well, huts and a dummy cow also. We learnt how the houses and different places like a court or a police station are created on television. These reside in the premises of the television station itself. We take them for real but they are all a part of the stage machinery. They give the touch of reality to the unreal world or they help in making the unreal, close to the real.

After the shooting, we all went to the canteen to take lunch. The moment we entered there, we saw the veteran television actor Vivek Shauq having lunch with his friends.

All of us were thrilled and excited. We took autographs from the famous comedian and got our photographs clicked with him. Then the director of our show also came there. He gave sweets to all the students who had participated in the ‘Jhilmil Taare’ programme. He told us that the episode would be telecast on the coming Sunday and wished us good luck for our studies. We enjoyed the lunch and came back. The memories we gathered there will never fade away. The innocent hours we spent there, full of naive questions and amazement can never be forgotten. Indeed they are some of the most memorable hours that I will cherish in my life to come.