FIRST TV SHOW IN LUMDING

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---- |) FIRST TV SHOW IN LUMDING
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8th October, 2010: #4.54 pm

I was wandering through the memories of past. Particularly, one scene that I recalled now was an event took place when I was in the class VII, that was an event took place 24 years ago in 1987.



Lumding is a place surrounded by hills in a way that used to block the terrestrial transmission of television. For Lumdingians, television was beyond reach till 1987 due to non availability of terrestrial radio signal as signals were blocked by surrounding hills.



The nearest Television relay center was in Nagaon and Diphu and both were at substantial distances making the region around Lumding "a region bereft of television sets".






We got TV for the first, but still Delhi Doordarshan, the only tv channel of India was not available in our place through antenna. In 1986, during the football world cup Mexico'86 people of Lumding were not able to watch those wonderful matches which includes some of the best play of Legendary Maradona, and the whole world was celebrating the football skills of an hitherto unknown player, named Diego Armando Maradona. After some matches, few people of Lumding decided to search for a means to watch those matches. Some one in Guwahati told them that there is a way to get to watch tv even if there is no transmission through conventional tv tower. And for that they have to buy a special type of antenna called SHYAM antenna. (actually it is dish antenna, but those people were told by the company employees of SHYAM, which makes and sells dish antenna. Hence, everyone thought the name of the instrument is SHYAM ANTENNA). It was the exact things that those people were searching for. They had already smelled the commercial prospects of the antenna. More than 10,000 households were there in Lumding, hence if they try they could surely gather 100 families who will be ready to pay to watch TV. Remember in 1986 TV was an luxury commodity in Assam at least. Only few low power relay stations were there in major cities like Guwahati, Nagaon, Silchar, Dibrugarh etc. So, after all they came back to Lumding and told everyone about the possible means they came to know to watch Tv, more importantly Football World Cup and Maradona's unforgettable performances. Lumding is a Railway Township and in this railway cooperative society got involved for partial financing the project and thus the giant dish (then it was a very big dish not like modern DTH dishes like Tata Sky, Airtel or others) was brought and the first tv show was screened in Lumding Thana Field and it was the Mexico '86 football final. The match was unforgettable, the moment was unforgettable as it was the first tv show in Lumding.