Life without television: a trial run

"Nick will go off the air for 30 minutes to encourage kids to get out and play"
- report in today's HT Cafe

Wonderful but meaningless marketing gesture. Unless ALL kids' channels go off the air on the same day and same time. And even then - what is a single day?

Of course, you will say it's the parents' responsibility to regulate their kids' TV viewing. Yeah right. Try it! It's like playing chor-police and the truth is you can't blame kids for watching too much TV. What are we adults doing?

I know that I have certainly been watching way too much in recent months. I generally channel surf, rarely watching a full program - so I kid myself ki nahin dekhti hoon. It's like saying I don't eat large meals only a lot of snacks. It still adds up. And it's a LOT of junk.

At the beginning of this month I took a tough decision: "This month, NO television!" We simply did not renew the Tata Sky connection. They called to check why. Bas yun hi, hum TV nahin dekhna chahte... Thank you very much!

So what do we do? Well board games like Monopoly and Connect Four have been brought out of the closet. I read more and sleep earlier (and better). I listen to Radio City 91.1 between 9-11 pm every night (it's on right now). They play really cool songs from the '70s and '80s - the kind I grew up listening to (amazing stuff!).

I'm not AGAINST TV or anything - in fact I actually have the best of both worlds. My parents live one floor below so jab marzi ho one can go down and watch. But doing so is a conscious act, not a mindless one.

The month has come to an end and I'm not sure what's next.

All I know is that when there is really important 'breaking news' someone breaks it to you... But TV ke bina there is so much peace in the house!