I took my ceremonial cup of tea of the day, and there came the thunder of the over-burdened sky. It roared, making rather funny sounds.. I smiled.. I thought of my little sister some 850km away, and tried to imagine what she would be doing right now.. The little thing would've been tired after her long school and table tennis coaching, and before she could be gobbled up by her hillock of homework, she'd probably be stealing her fair share of cartoons !
Cartoons !
Then I thought what she'd be watching.. Most probably Chhota Bheem or Doraemon or Shin-chan (boy do I hate him!) or Ben10... Maybe some other lame such thing !
Jeez, people.. This dude Chhota Bheem is a super winner.. He wins cricket matches against aliens, is supposed to be super smart AND super lucky and can fight all sorts of daaku/villain log as well as like-I-said-before aliens and black-magic and shit !
Nobita, Doraemon's friend, on the other hand is a super loser. He can burn corn flakes and can mess up drinking water. He can no control whatsoever on himself and is permanently under influence of some emotion , be it jealousy or greed or something else from the Pandora's box..
Shin-chan.. that sadistic bastard.. is the one cartoon that I and Aditya, my cousin and cartoon-mate (a cartoon-mate is almost as important as a soul-mate!), have successfully banned for my sister.
What shitty cartoons they make these days man !! Check out the newer seasons of the awesomest/perfectest/superbest/loveliest/made-for-each-other-est/evergreen pair in the history of art, our darlings Tom and Jerry.. THEY TALK !! They don't even look like the Tom and the Jerry we love..!
No breakup hurts as bad as seeing them talk, or not be similar to themselves, or even seeing the face of Tom's mistress.. I can't bear to watch the new Tom and Jerry for even a minute without lamenting for the fate of Fred Quimby, Chuck Jones, Hanna-Barbara and all those!
Remember the Metro-Goldwyn Mayer ka roaring lion before every Tom and Jerry episode?! And also Tom "Meow Meow"ing through the O of TOM, and Jerry falling,resting and cutely tap-waving on the Y of JERRY? I can remember each and every one of the plans made by Jerry and Spike-n-Tyke and the little ducklings and the canaries and the body-builder brother Muscles of Jerry and his cute baby-nephew Nibbles! The zillion times that Tom's tried to catch Jerry, and the equivalent number of times Jerry's saved himself.. The most beautiful friendship in them when they can't bear the thought of the other being out on a frosty night or being washed off in a flood or nursing each other in times of fever. I honestly doubt if there could ever be something as pure as that !
And it wasn't just Tom and Jerry we loved.. Remember ol' Popeye and his lady love Olive Oyl and the bad fella' Bluto (yes people, Bluto, NOT Brutus!).. That Bluto always managed to steal everything Popeye'd get for Olive, and she'd be impressed by Bluto than Popeye and then scold Popeye and ask him to be like Bluto. Just when the depressed Popeye would be walking away, he'd hear the cries of Olive for help.. Popeye'd try and help her but well, Bluto was Bluto ! He'd beat the shit outta Popeye, until finally Popeye's pipe tore up his can of Spinach and made his biceps n triceps awesomer than ever, his anchor tattoo almost alive and wipe out Bluto and get Olive Oyl..!
The story was always the same as above, but he was the reason we ate spinach and knew-and-desired olive oil before our parents did!
Another of their gift to us were the Loony Tunes.. all crazy people.. pigs and canaries and aliens and rabbits and all living together, loving each other ! The mad mad Bugs Bunny, the stupid Daffy Duck, the crazy canary tweety
There of course, were the Powerpuff Girls formed by the mysterious chemical X, which got added by the cowardly intelligent Professor Utonium. We all laughed at the mad monkey Mojo Jojo, and the finicky Mayor of Townsville (that was a trillion times more awesome than Farmville). Girls fought as to whether they were Blossom (the awesome!), Bubbles (the sweetums!) or Buttercup (the anger bomb!); boys denied they watched it (but generally had Buttercup as their favourite) and secretly watched it anyway !
We had the stinking rich Richie Rich, the most well-behaved yet sweet and smart boy, who was singularly loved by every girl, and whose Irona and Gloria and Dollar and the butler were such darlings ! His mad professor Keen Been who produced amazing machines that helped Richie protect his fortune !
There was the amazing, imagination-stretching Flintstones and Jetsons hour.. we'd be laughing at the leg-start car of Fred, the always-see-only-one-side of Welma, their pet dragon, and the super-awesome aircar-cum-suitcase of Mr Jetson, their amazing accessories.. These cartoons made us think of both, the past and the future, and how a simple family of four would be in such situations.
"Scoooby Dooobie Doooo" and his Yo!-fight-me nephew Scrappy stole our hearts in their own endearing ways.. Daphne's scarf and stalkings made her so pretty, and Welma, the smart-ass always kept thinking. That was one detective show everybody so loved !
We loved Pokemon, the first season with Ash, Brock and Misty ! We knew all their Pokemons and all their transformations.. Pichchu-Pikachu-Raichu.. Charmander-Charmeleon-Charizard.. Bulbasaur.. Gigglypuff.. we knew them all by heart.. we traded their tazos and cards..! we ate a million Cheetos for the craze of Pokemon !
The mechanic cats who turned into terrorist chasing cops were Swat Cats.. bade miyaan and chhote miyaan! So was Droopy and his son ! We had He-Man whose sword grew thrice and his nose-laughing nemesis- the Skeletor.. We had the Road Runner and Wiley Coyote, with his Al Qaeda stock of Acme explosives! There were the Sylvester and Tweety mysteries, with their supersmart grandmother.. There was Tintin, his dog and Captain always on the lookout of something fishy.. There were those 5 kids with different rings enabled to give rise to Captain Planet.. Then there was Sakura and her cards.. Batman.. Robin.. Wonderwoman.. Hawkgirl.. Superman.. Spiderman.. Green Lantern.. Flash.. the Justice League..
The desi versions rocked too.. Aladdin, Jasmine, the dumb Abu, the talkative Iago and the blue Genie on their flying Kaalim told us the sheer beauty of the Arabian Nights (can still hum that tune!). Sahara channel brought to us Mowgli, The Lion King and rather-distorted-but-much-more-interesting versions of Cinderella and Snow-White! We had the silly Timon and Pumba..!
We ofcourse had our very own Shaktiman who zoop-zoop-zooped his way, though he wasnt a cartoon ! So wasn't the 'mastikhor' Bokya Saatbande ! We used to love Vicky-Jamie-and-Harriett in Small Wonder; we loved Lizzie McGuire; the season1only of Hannah Montana.. And we looooved the Legends Of The Hidden Temple ! And guys watched SonPari too !
We had lousy stuff too !
Something we never quite understood (at that age) was the blonde hunk in black tee n blue jeans, Johnny Bravo and his match-making-everywhere mother ! All we understood was his queer hand-action on approaching a beauty and say "Aye, Haseena !" (sorry, I saw that one in Hindi!) and the beauty generally had him spell his name E-M-B-A-R-R-A-S-S-M-E-N-T !
Then there was Courage, the Cowardly Dog, his old mistress and creepy old master... And the producer/director's weird love for aliens ! This again was invariably the same.. An alien comes, affects the mistress, the love for the mistress makes Courage save her.
I seem to also recollect a really lamely animated version of Mahabharat !
I also remember the Weasel and Baboon something show.. We thought it was hell crazy because of the red-butts that it flaunted !
The worst was Ed, Edd and Eddy. I hated it, and all the non-sense it stood for !
But right now, as I look at all that, I see I had such a flavoured growing up.. The awesome stuff taught us morals and values while these very values taught us to dislike the non-awesome stuff !
We didn't grow up on XBox and PSP, we didn't have internet gamesites.. and thank my stars, we didn't have Farmville ! We all had our favourite cartoon merchandise- schoolbags, pouches, tiffin boxes, water bottles and tshirts ! We've travelled from #1 the time when Cartoon Network got gobbled up at 9pm so that TNT shooted to #2 Cartoon Network became a 24hour channel to #3 when Cartoon Network became CN and we finally stopped watching it !
We all grew up loving these folks as much or more than we loved our friends and family. We were serious cartoon addicts and we loved comparing ourselves to the favourite cartoon. And we still love them, we still laugh and talk excitedly about them and compare them and tell people which our favourite cartoon character was.. And I've still not even begun about Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pooh Bear, Tele-tubbies, Ariel and Barbie..
These cartoons created a whole new world for us.. a world we desired and dreamt of.. a world that taught us morality, that taught us to be happy and funny and naughty and at times irritate our parents about ! That world is a part of everybody today.. of you, and of me..
And obviously, the fastest way to awaken the child in us !
Cartoons !
Then I thought what she'd be watching.. Most probably Chhota Bheem or Doraemon or Shin-chan (boy do I hate him!) or Ben10... Maybe some other lame such thing !
Jeez, people.. This dude Chhota Bheem is a super winner.. He wins cricket matches against aliens, is supposed to be super smart AND super lucky and can fight all sorts of daaku/villain log as well as like-I-said-before aliens and black-magic and shit !
Nobita, Doraemon's friend, on the other hand is a super loser. He can burn corn flakes and can mess up drinking water. He can no control whatsoever on himself and is permanently under influence of some emotion , be it jealousy or greed or something else from the Pandora's box..
Shin-chan.. that sadistic bastard.. is the one cartoon that I and Aditya, my cousin and cartoon-mate (a cartoon-mate is almost as important as a soul-mate!), have successfully banned for my sister.
What shitty cartoons they make these days man !! Check out the newer seasons of the awesomest/perfectest/superbest/loveliest/made-for-each-other-est/evergreen pair in the history of art, our darlings Tom and Jerry.. THEY TALK !! They don't even look like the Tom and the Jerry we love..!
No breakup hurts as bad as seeing them talk, or not be similar to themselves, or even seeing the face of Tom's mistress.. I can't bear to watch the new Tom and Jerry for even a minute without lamenting for the fate of Fred Quimby, Chuck Jones, Hanna-Barbara and all those!
Remember the Metro-Goldwyn Mayer ka roaring lion before every Tom and Jerry episode?! And also Tom "Meow Meow"ing through the O of TOM, and Jerry falling,resting and cutely tap-waving on the Y of JERRY? I can remember each and every one of the plans made by Jerry and Spike-n-Tyke and the little ducklings and the canaries and the body-builder brother Muscles of Jerry and his cute baby-nephew Nibbles! The zillion times that Tom's tried to catch Jerry, and the equivalent number of times Jerry's saved himself.. The most beautiful friendship in them when they can't bear the thought of the other being out on a frosty night or being washed off in a flood or nursing each other in times of fever. I honestly doubt if there could ever be something as pure as that !
And it wasn't just Tom and Jerry we loved.. Remember ol' Popeye and his lady love Olive Oyl and the bad fella' Bluto (yes people, Bluto, NOT Brutus!).. That Bluto always managed to steal everything Popeye'd get for Olive, and she'd be impressed by Bluto than Popeye and then scold Popeye and ask him to be like Bluto. Just when the depressed Popeye would be walking away, he'd hear the cries of Olive for help.. Popeye'd try and help her but well, Bluto was Bluto ! He'd beat the shit outta Popeye, until finally Popeye's pipe tore up his can of Spinach and made his biceps n triceps awesomer than ever, his anchor tattoo almost alive and wipe out Bluto and get Olive Oyl..!
The story was always the same as above, but he was the reason we ate spinach and knew-and-desired olive oil before our parents did!
Another of their gift to us were the Loony Tunes.. all crazy people.. pigs and canaries and aliens and rabbits and all living together, loving each other ! The mad mad Bugs Bunny, the stupid Daffy Duck, the crazy canary tweety
There of course, were the Powerpuff Girls formed by the mysterious chemical X, which got added by the cowardly intelligent Professor Utonium. We all laughed at the mad monkey Mojo Jojo, and the finicky Mayor of Townsville (that was a trillion times more awesome than Farmville). Girls fought as to whether they were Blossom (the awesome!), Bubbles (the sweetums!) or Buttercup (the anger bomb!); boys denied they watched it (but generally had Buttercup as their favourite) and secretly watched it anyway !
We had the stinking rich Richie Rich, the most well-behaved yet sweet and smart boy, who was singularly loved by every girl, and whose Irona and Gloria and Dollar and the butler were such darlings ! His mad professor Keen Been who produced amazing machines that helped Richie protect his fortune !
There was the amazing, imagination-stretching Flintstones and Jetsons hour.. we'd be laughing at the leg-start car of Fred, the always-see-only-one-side of Welma, their pet dragon, and the super-awesome aircar-cum-suitcase of Mr Jetson, their amazing accessories.. These cartoons made us think of both, the past and the future, and how a simple family of four would be in such situations.
"Scoooby Dooobie Doooo" and his Yo!-fight-me nephew Scrappy stole our hearts in their own endearing ways.. Daphne's scarf and stalkings made her so pretty, and Welma, the smart-ass always kept thinking. That was one detective show everybody so loved !
We loved Pokemon, the first season with Ash, Brock and Misty ! We knew all their Pokemons and all their transformations.. Pichchu-Pikachu-Raichu.. Charmander-Charmeleon-Charizard.. Bulbasaur.. Gigglypuff.. we knew them all by heart.. we traded their tazos and cards..! we ate a million Cheetos for the craze of Pokemon !
The mechanic cats who turned into terrorist chasing cops were Swat Cats.. bade miyaan and chhote miyaan! So was Droopy and his son ! We had He-Man whose sword grew thrice and his nose-laughing nemesis- the Skeletor.. We had the Road Runner and Wiley Coyote, with his Al Qaeda stock of Acme explosives! There were the Sylvester and Tweety mysteries, with their supersmart grandmother.. There was Tintin, his dog and Captain always on the lookout of something fishy.. There were those 5 kids with different rings enabled to give rise to Captain Planet.. Then there was Sakura and her cards.. Batman.. Robin.. Wonderwoman.. Hawkgirl.. Superman.. Spiderman.. Green Lantern.. Flash.. the Justice League..
The desi versions rocked too.. Aladdin, Jasmine, the dumb Abu, the talkative Iago and the blue Genie on their flying Kaalim told us the sheer beauty of the Arabian Nights (can still hum that tune!). Sahara channel brought to us Mowgli, The Lion King and rather-distorted-but-much-more-interesting versions of Cinderella and Snow-White! We had the silly Timon and Pumba..!
We ofcourse had our very own Shaktiman who zoop-zoop-zooped his way, though he wasnt a cartoon ! So wasn't the 'mastikhor' Bokya Saatbande ! We used to love Vicky-Jamie-and-Harriett in Small Wonder; we loved Lizzie McGuire; the season1only of Hannah Montana.. And we looooved the Legends Of The Hidden Temple ! And guys watched SonPari too !
We had lousy stuff too !
Something we never quite understood (at that age) was the blonde hunk in black tee n blue jeans, Johnny Bravo and his match-making-everywhere mother ! All we understood was his queer hand-action on approaching a beauty and say "Aye, Haseena !" (sorry, I saw that one in Hindi!) and the beauty generally had him spell his name E-M-B-A-R-R-A-S-S-M-E-N-T !
Then there was Courage, the Cowardly Dog, his old mistress and creepy old master... And the producer/director's weird love for aliens ! This again was invariably the same.. An alien comes, affects the mistress, the love for the mistress makes Courage save her.
I seem to also recollect a really lamely animated version of Mahabharat !
I also remember the Weasel and Baboon something show.. We thought it was hell crazy because of the red-butts that it flaunted !
The worst was Ed, Edd and Eddy. I hated it, and all the non-sense it stood for !
But right now, as I look at all that, I see I had such a flavoured growing up.. The awesome stuff taught us morals and values while these very values taught us to dislike the non-awesome stuff !
We didn't grow up on XBox and PSP, we didn't have internet gamesites.. and thank my stars, we didn't have Farmville ! We all had our favourite cartoon merchandise- schoolbags, pouches, tiffin boxes, water bottles and tshirts ! We've travelled from #1 the time when Cartoon Network got gobbled up at 9pm so that TNT shooted to #2 Cartoon Network became a 24hour channel to #3 when Cartoon Network became CN and we finally stopped watching it !
We all grew up loving these folks as much or more than we loved our friends and family. We were serious cartoon addicts and we loved comparing ourselves to the favourite cartoon. And we still love them, we still laugh and talk excitedly about them and compare them and tell people which our favourite cartoon character was.. And I've still not even begun about Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pooh Bear, Tele-tubbies, Ariel and Barbie..
These cartoons created a whole new world for us.. a world we desired and dreamt of.. a world that taught us morality, that taught us to be happy and funny and naughty and at times irritate our parents about ! That world is a part of everybody today.. of you, and of me..
And obviously, the fastest way to awaken the child in us !
5 comments:
5.
Nice. Although can't quite understand your hatred for Doraemon, Nobita and Shin chan(jealousy?!), for try watching what they show on CN these days - i mean for what it's worth these come as a huge relief. Sadly, Tiny TV was the last "awesome-est" thing that happened to us.
Well, CN aint getting any better..! feeling sad for the kids who never ever experience the ORIGINAL TOM AND JERRY, loony toons or those who could never feel the awesomeness of johny bravo..! XD
Ghag Boy, seriously, could you be more vague?
Apaar, thank you! Aww I totally forgot about Tiny TV, but we'd an afternoon school, so not many memories there !
thePhantom.. true that !
nice one....seriously feel bad for my kid sister sumtimes....i miss johny bravo n buttercup badly...!
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