The Television Antenna

 

The Television Antenna

            Last year I was in Ahmedabad for some official work. The city has a warm charm to it. My Friend, Raju was living there that time, and I planned to meet him. Raju was an Electrical Engineer and graduated from a reputed Engineering College. I got his phone number from Kuttu, who is now in teaching profession in a University. Receiving my call in Ahmedabad, he was delighted and invited me for a get-together.  

            After enjoying the ride in the calm waters of Kankariya lake I proceeded for the venue, as given by Raju, to join the party.  When we met at 7.15 p.m. the sun was still smiling. It was quite unlike our native place.

            I was very happy to see Raju after so many years. Even though he was bald now with thick glasses and a stylish goatee, his smile did not change. It reminded me our childhood mischief.

Raju told me that he was a General Manager at a reputed MNC and posted at Ahmedabad these days. Though, I knew little of his profession, I knew that to become a General Manager of any MNC at the age of 40 was a reflection of sincerity and talent.  I felt proud of my childhood friend.    

Raju was married to his college sweetheart Sanghita. She hailed from Karnataka and worked for a charity group. The lady was calm, intelligent and good-looking. Their daughter was studying in fifth grade in Ahmedabad International School. They lived in their own residence in Ahmedabad. Raju seemed successful and well settled.

We met at an elite restaurant on Relief Road, near Gujrat Electricity Board office and it was obviously arranged by Raju. He came with his wife, Mrs. Sanghita.

We exchanged pleasantries and settled down at our table at a far corner in the restaurant overlooking the river. Generally in Gujrat, people prefer vegetable items; but, when the waiter came Raju ordered for the fish tempura as a starter for all of us. I realised that though he lived in Gujrat for more than a decade, his food habits hadn’t changed.

Raju was really very happy to see me there. We started joking, cherishing our old memories. 

I observed, it was difficult for Sanghita to enjoy the stories, since she was from a different society and different stratum. But, she was nodding to our expressions and trying to blend in with the ambience of our table. To break the monotony of the conversation I asked about their college life and enquired on Sanghita’s professional activities. But all were in vain as Raju kept going back to our childhood stories.    

 

2

 

The timeline of the story is about middle of 1980s. Then, people still used phones with a cord and modern technology was yet to take control of our lives.  The transistor type radio era was going to end. One newfangled gadget was peeping up in affluent households of our country.  That was big sized black and white television, in short TV. TV was the most cherished item for upper middle class families, at that time. A few households of our village had the privilege of owning Television sets.

The story catered around Raju himself and his bosom friend Kuttu, my contemporary, my neighbour, the famous mischievous boy of our village. At that time Kuttu was in seventh grade. He was tall in height, bony and had jet-black hair with sparkling eyes. He was witty, popularly known for his mischievous deed. Raju, like his friend Kuttu, was clever and cunning and always ready for some prank.   

That summer, Kuttu managed to hit the jackpot.  His father brought home a TV set. He did not expect luck to favour thus, especially with a father who vehemently opposed owning a TV, for reasons better known to him. So, I planned on making regular trips to watch TV at Kuttu’s house, mostly on Sundays.

Even though I didn’t like Kuttu much, I still befriended Kuttu for the sole reason that he had a TV at his home.

            In the mid 80s, the only channel that was played in the TV was Doordarshan. But our village being a border town, close to Bangladesh meant that we could also receive transmission from nearby Dhaka city. That was Bangladesh Television. That channel relayed Bengali transmission which was more popular in the local Bengali speaking community. But connecting to Dhaka channel was not easy. It required some expertise and manoeuvre for adjusting the strange looking metal rod with spikes. This was called TV antenna.

The antenna was kept in place with the help of a steel rod. That steel rod was used to change the direction of antenna. The Antenna, standing erect at the rooftop of a building, like a mast of a sailing ship, would increase the status of a village household by manifolds. That time these black and white TV sets was one of the status symbol of the family in our village.

It was well accepted in our village that the face of the antenna should be towards the south-west direction and its height was the most vital condition for better transmission of television channel.

Kuttu was expert at adjusting the mast of the antenna towards the right direction. He could connect his television set with foreign channel by changing the direction of the antenna. So adjustment of the antenna and importance of antenna were very worthy. Kuttu’s best friend, Raju had also one unique capability. He was master in fine tuning of channels by adjusting the channel tuner knob of the TV set. Then, TV sets were without remote control and the knob was the main portion of channel change or fine adjustments.

Both of them were famous, rather to say valued, in our village for their qualities. When any one faced problem with their Television set tuning or any defect in antenna, they used to call Kuttu and Raju. Both of them felt very proud of that.  Kuttu’s expertise was a bit risky. Once, Kuttu got a rigorous electric shock when he tried to open the antenna jack from a rear portion of a TV set. It was very tough to reach that portion as those models of TV were jumbo type and had one big box-like extension at the rear part. 

The incident was at the house of the garage owner of our village- Gopichand. His TV was not displaying anything. Gopichand’s wife and his little daughter were nagging him for a solution. It was only one hour before the scheduled time of their favourite TV show. It was evening, so there was no scope to get any mechanic. He called Kuttu and Raju for help. Overconfident- Kuttu touched the jack without seeing and somehow his fingers touched some bare portion and he got electrified. He was traumatized with pale blue face for a while and he was whimpering. Gopichand and his family were perplexed at that time.

Thank god!

He was not bare foot and Raju saved him. Raju was quick-witted. Instantly, he gave a blow to Kuttu with one wooden chump. Raju, as a disciple of Sir Newton, knew that woods are the best insulator. Kuttu was blown away five feet from the TV set, of course not for the electric shock. That was only because of that stroke from Raju by that wooden chump. 

For the next one week Kuttu had to walk with a limp due to that injury set by Raju to save his life. Kuttu kept in mind this as a wound of love from his bestie.   

During that phase, importance of Kuttu in his family somehow got improved. His mother Sreemati Mira also started giving importance to him. That was only for his “Antenna quality”. But the good fortune of Kuttu didn’t grow longer.

The occurrence of this narrative was during summer season. Summer season was full of fun on those days. In our village this season was rather to say season of fruits. Everywhere there was abundance of juicy fruits like mangoes, jackfruits, blackberry and many other local variety fruit.

Anyway, the favourite fruit was mango for all tender aged boys and girls. Girls were fond of green mango and boys were mad on ripen. But mangoes from all the trees in our village were not so tasty. Some few plants had that special quality and produced flavoursome juicy mangoes.

All the boys used their skill to pluck mangoes without any permission. Landholders chasing bunch of boys from the mango trees was common scene in our village during that fruiting season.

The best variety of mango was available in Mala’s house. Mangoes of that tree were oval shaped with excellent juicy flavour and reddish touch in texture. The mango tree was at the bank of the pond just behind the house of Kuttu.

That tree was the most precious possession of Mala’s old aunt. She was elder sister of Mala’s father. She became widow in her tender age. Since then she was residing there. She was deeply attached to that tree. Whole year she used to observe the tree twice daily, in the morning and afternoon.

On the fruiting season she used to observe the tree and inspect the mangoes in a tree very keenly as if she was counting the mangoes and trying to memorize the number of counts from her last inspection. Numbers of her surveys were increased proportionally with the ripening of mangoes.

Lucky chap was Anku. She used to trust only Anku. If Anku said the count was okay then she felt satisfied. In return, Anku got some mangoes from her, of course legally. Kuttu and Raju used to make Anku as their Boss during that season. That was surely for ripe mangoes from that tree.

But that grant from Anku was not sufficient to satiate Kuttu and Raju. So, apart from that grant they often steal mangoes from that tree.  They were very skilled in this matter and never got caught. They used to pluck mangoes from Kuttu’s house with bamboo as the tree was at the very vicinity of their house.

One ring of GI wire was fixed at the top end of the bamboo to detach the mangoes from the tree.  One plastic bag was fixed just below the ring at hanging positing to catch the detached mango to prevent dropping sound on the ground.

That was specially designed and made by Raju with his supernormal scientific aptitude. The time of such pluck was in between two inspections by that old lady.

Sometimes that lady used to start uproar on the ground that mangoes are missing from the tree. Then only Anku could act for a cease fire. If Anku said he saw some bats last night over the tree, the old lady used to pacify herself.    

                                                                                                                                           

3

 

The incidence was of an evening. Kuttu’s mother was waiting for her favourite TV programme, Chitrahar. It was the most favourite TV show for almost all viewers. That program featured song clips from Bollywood films. It was scheduled to be held in 10 minutes.

But unfortunately the TV was not functioning at all. The screen of the TV was only grainy and caused annoyance along with regret. Shiuli was wandering in the rooms in despair. Being asked, Kuttu tried to adjust the TV. But all in vein. All technical skills that were unveiled by Kuttu failed.

Fortunately or unfortunately Raju was present there. Raju tried to help but his craftsmanship also failed. Then Kuttu’s mother asked Kuttu to check the antenna mast on the roof.

But to everyone’s surprise Kuttu denied the request softly and on the plea that he was afraid of climbing the roof in the dark. That was to a certain extent abnormal for Kuttu. As he often used to climb up to the roof in the night time to avoid his study.   

Interestingly, both Kuttu and Raju became suddenly restless and due to some unknown reason Raju left Kuttu’s house hurriedly.  

Sreemati Mira, when felt that the TV would not be in order, then she went to Mala’s house to watch the TV program.

In the mean time Kuttu’s father came home. He was tired and exhausted after the long days work. He interacted with Shiuli but Kuttu was too busy with his study. Though his behaviour was quite unusual his father felt satisfied observing his keenness towards study. He appreciated Kuttu for that.

But despite of appreciation from father, Kuttu was somewhat uneasy and tried to confess something, he could not.

Late at night, when Sreemati Mira returned back home, then every discussion was held regarding that TV. Kuttu’s father told that he would stay for the next three days and by that time one TV mechanic from town would be called for.

After dinner all went to sleep.

 

4

Next morning Shiuli noticed something very unusual. Early in the morning when she woke up and had gone to the backyard of their house, she saw the antenna was hanging on the backside wall. An Upper half portion of the mast with antennae was in the pond of Mala’s house just beneath that mango tree.

That was a shock for Shiuli and she screamed and started calling everybody, citing the antennae.

Kuttu’s parents rushed to her and realized the fact of disturbance of TV in the last night. They became furious.

Meanwhile, Kuttu perceived the trouble and hopped out from the bed. Slowly, he moved out of his room and started stepping down the stairs aiming to run away from the house.

But his father was standing just in front of him in the courtyard. His father’s hands were on his waist with fierce mood.  Kuttu looked to his father’s angry face and was pale in fear. To escape the grim situation, he confessed everything. Kuttu described how he and Raju tried to steal mangoes from that tree and as there were no available tools for the purpose, they used the antenna pole to steal the mangoes. However his explanation had no effect on his parents who were livid with anger. Kuttu begged for mercy. But all were in vain.

The scene was like as if whirl of slaps and fists broke upon Kuttu.

I was his neighbour. Kuttu’s cries were reaching to my ears. I looked out from my bed through the window and saw Kuttu begging for mercy in squeaky voice. He was flat in ground beaten badly with a thin solid stick by his parents. 

I was curious and came out from my room to observe the situation. In the veranda I was surprised to find Raju. He was watching the wretched condition of his bosom friend. Raju was shivering in fear and crying too. I felt Raju was feeling guilty and Kuttu’s pain and cries were unbearable to him. I was touched by their friendship.

I asked Raju about the incident. He described that they found the antenna as the most appropriate tool for plucking mangoes. Indeed, Kuttu’s idea was very innovative and unique. Antenna was useful for the purpose due to its spokes. In the spokes they hanged many bags and GI wire rings and smoothly they plucked many mangoes in a very short period without any tip-off to anyone. While they were stealing the mangoes, unfortunately Anku came to the scene. In order to save them from being caught Kuttu quickly dropped the antenna along with the mangoes in the pond near the tree. It happened all of a sudden both of them were confused and could not understand what to do next. Furthermore, they could see the old aunt rushing towards the tree. So there was no option left to them but to run away. No doubt they could save themselves but failed to collect back the most precious tool- antenna and the hard earned juicy mangoes.   

Though the antenna episode sounded very funny to me, it taught both Kuttu and Raju a lesson. Raju and Kuttu’s adventures with antenna ended that way. After that they never laid hands on any antenna.

But they never gave up their habit of stealing mangoes.  

 

 

5

In the dining table Raju was adding tiny details of the story and we were laughing whole heartedly.

I noticed, as a desert item Raju ordered “Aam kheer”.  Sanghita informed me about Raju’s love for mangoes. I realised that the river Sabarmati has flown a great distance but Raju was still fond of mangoes.

We were there for near about four hours. We had a good discussion, laughs and chat on our childhood memories. I felt that Kuttu, Kalu, Anku, Mala, Shiuli- all our childhood friends were there with us on that night.  

 It was too late for me. 11.15 PM. The next morning I had a flight at 8.30 AM. I had to leave. Raju was not in a mood to wind up. However, I managed that. He dropped me near the location of my hotel at Panchavati-circle.
             We said goodbye after a warm hug. I realised that even though we had different vocations, different lifestyles and different work places to live on, we are always walking together in our memory lane. From then on I was lost in my business to return back in my destination.     

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