The Lost Art of Watching Television With Family

I managed to fly home right before the nationwide lockdown came into force. It had been a year since I had been home and it was a bittersweet moment. I was glad I could quarantine with my family and my four dogs, but was also anxious about what lay ahead.

Now, with an alarming rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, the pandemic seems to be far from over. Nonetheless, netizens have found their own ways to deal with the pandemic. While some engage in different online shenanigans, like taking part in TikTok dance challenges and making dalgona coffee, others talk about how this can be an opportunity to reconnect with one’s family.

I have been away from home for the past six years, visiting biannually and only staying for a couple of weeks. The lockdown has been the longest span I have been at home. The days at home have become an endless cycle of eating, disinfecting surfaces, watching the news and sleeping half awake.

The television set has regained its popularity in our household as we all gather in our living room to watch the news. It has become our window to the outside world, which has taken a treacherous turn.

This takes me back to my childhood. As a middle-class family, a coloured television was one of the few luxuries we could afford. Back then, the TV set seemed like a prized possession, a gateway to a better world, a world that I couldn’t wait to venture out to.

The few hours after returning from school and before going to our study table was the time my brother and I were allowed to watch TV; most of which we wasted arguing about what to watch or fighting over who will be in charge of the remote. Sundays were about watching Malgudi Days, Shaktiman and Junior G and post dinner, we all watched horror serials cooped up under a blanket. We enjoyed Hindi movies as much we enjoyed watching regional cinema on one of the very few Assamese channels available back then. We, as a family, spent most of our evenings and weekends in front of the television.


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However, things changed as we grew up. Watching a movie or listening to the news stopped being a family affair as smartphones came into our lives. The personal experience offered by our phones appeared to be more intriguing. The device that’s supposed to keep us connected kept us from having collective experiences. As I try to manage my life away from my family, I find myself reminiscing about the simple things we did together as a family like watching TV or eating meals together, and during this lockdown, we are doing both.

Between watching the news and doing our chores, we now occasionally watch a movie or two. We sat down to watch Angrezi Medium just a couple of days ago. This was the first movie we watched together in almost 7-8 years. It was really fitting, I felt. The movie beautifully captures how some parents are willing to go to any extent to help fulfil their child’s dream. At one point of time, my parents and I faced a similar dilemma as the film’s protagonist Tarika (played by Radhika Madan) and Champak (played by Irrfan Khan).

While we wait for the coronavirus crisis to end, I am elated that I can relive the fond memories of my childhood. Thankful that we have put our phones to its must needed exile and have chosen to revive the lost art of watching television together with the family.

Sweta Dutta is currently working as a research assistant and is trying to dabble into writing during this lockdown period. She is from Guwahati, Assam and has been in Delhi since 2014.

Featured image credit: Marion Doss/Flickr