Dear Readers,
Everybody these days is all praises for the new Pakistani TV serials which are being broad casted daily on a special channel. The other day, I overheard two ladies chit -chatting about the sumptuous visual treat from across the border that also offer a much needed relief from Ekta Kapur's torture. One of the ladies who happened to be an ardent fan of stories by writers like Sarat Chandra, Dostoevsky or Rahi Masoom Raza told the other one how she could instinctively associate with the heart rendering subjects of these televised stories. She complained that the beauty, elegance, simplicity and close-to-real-lifeness of these programs was something that is missing from our soap-operas.
If this was not enough, I encountered a bunch of unpatriotic fans right inside our staff room. These young ladies were going gaga over some Fawad Khan whom they found irresistibly cute. After a lot of external stimuli, my anxiety was raised to such a level that in the evening I had to park myself in front of the idiot box and catch a glimpse of these characters.
I could manage to watch it only for about fifteen-twenty minutes because I would prefer to read than to watch TV. Yet, whatever I saw brought a strong smell of the mother Earth. The character and story did touch the inner walls of the heart and one could feel the belongingness. Whatever that's got anything to do with India-Pakistan is highly emotionally charged and I believe this adds to the intoxicating charm of these programs. As for me, the historian inside raced back into time and brought back visual memories from TV serials of the good old days - Hum Log, Buniyad, Mitti ke Rang and my favorite Neem ka Ped.
Munh ki baat sune har koi, dil ke dard jane kaun,
awazon ke bazaron main, khamoshi pehchane kaun.....
