POV: These TV shows from the early 2000s need to come back into my life ASAP!

In a generation that watches cartoons on YouTube at their own leisure, I wish I could bring back the days when all of us were glued to our TV screens!

After a long day of masti at school, I used to come home to a hot plate of rasam rice waiting for me. But I wouldn’t eat a morsel of that without an episode of Detective Conan. I used to think he was the coolest detective out there who could solve anything and everything. Back then when OTT did not exist, my life revolved around my cartoons and all the TV shows that came on Disney channel. I remember how happy I was when my family first got TataSky simply because it had a feature to record the shows that I missed out when I wasn't home. That’s how I kept up with what was happening in Oswald’s life and which new life lesson he learned in each episode. 

Bob the Builder had a soft spot in my heart because of the way its animation looked so different from the others. It felt as if the characters were literally made out of clay. The whole bit with his tools, his truck, when he poured cement, when rolly rolled over it - the satisfaction was very real! Then came the evening shows; watching them was how I knew that it’s time to unwind for the day. I had my glass of milk and Hide and Seek ready before Recess started. It was weirdly comforting maybe because I was in school at that point and I found a lot of things relatable. I loved that they were a group of misfits who became friends. Someone was plus size, someone was tall with glasses, someone was an absolute nerd but they all had each other’s back!

I think I got so used to singing Phineas and Ferb’s title track that I still remember it so well. I saw a lot of myself in Candice because I have a younger brother who annoyed me just like that and then went to my parents to whine about it. But it was not just the cartoons that kept me hooked to the screens from early on, the pre-teen shows were also well included in my binge schedule back then. Not a lot of people knew this but if you stayed up a bit late, Jonas Brothers would telecast on Disney channel. The show was about them playing themselves but in a fictional world where they also had a family and fell in love. That and High School Musical was my very first introduction to the American pop culture scene and you best believe I was mesmerized by it all.

I had no idea kids there were allowed to wear whatever they wanted in school, that they could carry their phones along and each one of them got their own locker? It was so unheard of! Troy and Gabriella from HSM were ultimate couple goals for me and I think deep down I still ship those two. This was followed by the Disney classics like That’s So Raven and Lizzie Mcguire, both played this girl next door with a twist in their life kinda characters. I always found it so cool that Raven could see the future and I think I was pretty convinced that I could see the future just like her! Hannah Montana truly made a lot of young girls like me feel like we could actually have the best of everything! I used to go to her fan page and write her messages from there. I think my delusion with pop stars which is still pretty intact began with my obsession of her.

The Hindi pre-teen shows weren’t that far behind either. If you were a Disney kid, you have hundred percent watched Kya Mast Hai Life and Dhoom Machao Dhoom. I actually went to the extent of making my own version of the pink band with my school bus friends. And of course I always manifested to have a friend group like the one in Kya Mast Hai Life! CIA: Cambala Investigation Agency that was broadcasted on POGO also became something I looked forward to over the weekends. These groups of kids were solving cases that even adults weren’t able to. It felt empowering to watch as a kid.

Speaking of empowering, our very own Star Plus had a little something for kids back then. An entire generation grew up on Shararat and Shakalaka Boom Boom. I know I’m not the only one who went ‘“shring bhring sarvalin, bhoot bhavishya vartaman badling” and snapped my fingers thinking it would actually work. Or how badly I wanted that pencil from Shakalaka Boom Boom so I would never have listen to "no" from my parents for anything.

My point here is that content for kids back then actually had a little bit of everything - simplicity, entertainment, education, and a lot to take away in terms of life lessons from these shows. Maybe that’s why so many of us still crave these shows. We still want to go back to the time where OTT did not exist and television was our entire life. While it’s great that kids today get to watch things whenever they want and parents can easily limit their screen time, I wish we went back to a simpler time where everyone was watching the same thing and had to wait for that column in the newspaper to check what’s being broadcasted when. I did not even realize when my childhood ended and when I suppressed all of these shows at the back of my head, until life happened!

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