3628800. And before you rubbish this figure, considering it to be the amount of black money-stashed in foreign banks; or some raspy, exclusive unearthing of a new entrant in the already over-populated world of Scams, you were wrong. That’s the number of seconds, since I last saw the impact of excited yet duty bound electrons; striking the beatific fluorescent display; leaving its impressive imprint in the form of Pixels- the corrugated pictures which seemed like those intelligible puzzles, like mysteries; which were certain to be resolved, in sync, to end up as perfect images. Yeah, Television, in other words! The last thing I remember seeing on it was a certain breaking-news-material; wherein some village in the Bulandkhand district of Uttar Pradesh was rattled by a Dog-bite. Not that it was a rare occurring, but the setup of this untimely event was significantly different. The victim-a groom, was halfway through his Marriage Rituals, where this dog decided to- from a mere spectator- become, the tormentor-in-chief at the Ceremony. It ran in, all from nowhere and before anyone could apprehend its presence; his canines had made a massive inroad into the groom’s leg; as if they were made up of nothing but Cheese. The groom fell over, crying in acute pain, whereas the dog, according to an eyewitness; took the easy way out- silently instating itself among the curious crowd and gradually disappearing, in the dark. Some people suspected that the Dog had been trained by the village Sarpanch’s family; whose daughter had been rejected by the Groom’s side; stating the status of the girl’s impending Education, as the reason for refusal. This, in turn, infuriated the Sarpanch and he hired a trainer-who, during the Investigation turned out to be a History-sheeter. Whereas, on intense grueling and a tantrik interference; it was unearthed that the Dog was not a Dog. I mean, the dog was a dog, but the dog had dodged the dog side and adored the previous form of manifestation; wherein the dog was not a dog, but a dark human and he had some hearts for the dusky bride. Well, it’s a speculation, after all! But enough, to come under the ambit of Breaking News and Boy, was I intrigued!
And boom, that turned out to be the last memory, I possessed of the Television. The very next day; we bit (Oops!), we bid an adieu to the Television set and unsubscribed to the Digital Cable. It came in as a bit of shock; the ill-time of its sudden downfall- though surprising; was inevitable. Over-indulgence in Television set, ate out our dinner time- the prime time for Digital Companies. It replaced any sorts of genuine, real conversation. The only thing we talked about was regarding the distribution of T.V. time- each of us were entitled to, as if it were a prized possession-which, we thought, it was. But there were always; in spite of the seemingly fake garb of fairness; a couple of Eye-balls- who bore a discontented look, when the program on-air wasn’t of their preference or to their liking. This led to a situation, M.S. Dhoni recently termed as ‘Unrest’. And that, the unrest had reached a breakdown point. The situation was intercepted and was suddenly addressed with the removal of the T.V. set. Having said that; it’s influential absence was pretty much significant- in the very first week. The emotions riding throughout me; weren’t that of Sadness, though, but misplaced Anger. Anger- in its most turbulent state; which was the first impetuous sign of my over-growing dependence on it. For all that happened throughout the world, I thought, that the television was the only inroad or access to it. No matter, that the little fluff pieces, the network companies dished out- was something I could easily do without. And so, I shifted my allegiance towards the Newspaper; which dutifully attended to my Curiosity; for everything significant- happening around the world.
And a fortnight later, things were changing. At a slow pace, but nevertheless, changing. Dinner- was the thing; everyone looked up to- because it guaranteed some quality time- we thought was never feasible, the constraints being the very life, we lived! Happenings were shared, the traffic was bitched about, and jokes, were aplenty. There were things rupturing out, things that were never talked about, before. And the T.V. programs- some poor scripted fiction shows with threads of conspiracies and more conspiracies, with an inevitable leap, just around the corner or coming across an insignificant Dog-bite; which made it on every Prime time News channel; were no longer there to hold us captive; to concierge our preferences, to compromise on the inaction of plaudits. 42 days, and no one, for once, has ever mentioned the word- TELEVISION. We have christened it to be the expositor, have symbolized it so that it resembles an extortioner, of everything good. Sounds wicked, ain’t it?
You can share your views, even if they differ, and especially, in that case.
The Great Perhaps 
When I started reading this I thought, “You’ve already told all this to me.” But, then it was fun, presented in a good manner. By the way, LCDs and LEDs don’t use excited elctron and flouroscent screen technology 🙂
Firstly, Thanks for writing in. And yeah, LCD’s and LED’s have some different technologies, all together. Too bad, it turns out that we had retained the standard cathode-ray tube television, all this years. It was, I would presume, half-a-dozen years away from being termed as an Antique piece.