Let me take you back about 25 years. Those were not the days of movies-on-demand, or YouTube, or NetFlix or even CDs.
You wanted to see a movie, then you could go to a theatre. Another option was to rent out a movie. Yes, actually rent out a movie from a video library, you know, like borrowing a book from a library.
These movies would come in VCs or Video Cassettes, also called VHS tapes and they would play on your TV if you connect it to a Video Cassette Player (VCP) or a Video Cassette Recorder (VCR). To give my young readers (if I have any ;)) an idea, a video cassette is like a big book and it contains a tape of the movie recorded on it. It is like an audio tape but larger in size. Get the idea?
Now, when the video cassette player came into the market, we were not the ones who bought it. 😀
When we were kids, only television channel was Doordarshan and we were happy with it! The only movies we watched were the ones every saturday and sunday at 5.30 pm.
One summer, my sister and I had a wonderful idea to rent out movies from the video library. The movie was rented at about 10 rupees per day. There was a catch! But we had no VCP or VCR to play them. So the workaround was to rent out the player too for a day. The deal was that the rental fellow would come over and fix it with our TV. (We did not know how to do it ourselves!) and then we would return it in a day.
One hindi movie averages about 3 hours. The rental time would start at around 10 am on a saturday or a sunday. We had to return the player at 10 on the next day. My sister and I calculated that we could watch 4 films. 10 am – 1 pm, 2 pm – 5 pm, 6 pm – 9 pm and then next day morning 7 am – 10 am. So we would deliberate in great detail and select 4 films to watch and then we would rent them out.
The 1st session was a breeze. We would have snacks, cushions and all the works. After lunch, the 2nd session would also finish. Then the fatigue would set in, the 3rd session would be a drag. We would not be able to keep our eyes open! Maybe we went cross eyed too! 😀
The next day we would not be able to get up early to watch the 4th film. Even if we did, we would get so bored that we would not be able to sit through it all. That last movie was always One too many! We would just wait for 10 am and then the equipment went back.
Come summer holidays, we would do it all over again.
Then of course, video cassettes themselves went out never to return!
Written for the July BarAThon.
Today’s prompt is : One too many
Read other awesome bloggers here.
you always a knack of bringing back good old memories; memories tucked away in some corner of our brain but still very precious.
today with this blog you reminded me of that uncle in our place who used to sell fish on his bicycle in the mornings while converting it into a mobile video cassette rental in the evenings!
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Thanks Shaini. Mobile video lib? What an innovative idea! Smart man!
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I don’t think we did it for more than 2 or 3 summers, though.. our good old libraries ( books, I mean), were our staple.
Good post though. I remember, our wedding videos were video casettes too. Wonder where I kept mine!! Must have lost it I guess😛
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Books have always been our first love. Lost the wedding videos? LOL! Even if they were not lost, where is the player?
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I remember those days. Such a craze for movies then. But now I cannot sit for even a single movie. Though reading habit continued
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We were never crazy for movies. This was just a summer thing! The craze for movies remain even today in the younger generation. Notice how all movies now seem to make 100cr.
But you know, reading is the best.
Thanks Bhagyashree for liking.
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Great post! Took me down memory lane, akka! We had a VCP and I remember going to the rental store to bring those coveted video cassettes. Though we did not have any movie marathons at home, we used to have one at my aunt’s place for every Shivaratri. Unfortunately, my uncle was a Balakrishna fan and so we had to be subjected to his movies as a part of it. 🙂
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Having a VCP would make marathons unnecessary I suppose. But we kept this up for about 2 or 3 summers.
Balakrishna! Oh God no! Of all the people, I just detest him! 😀
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Balakrishna movies!!! What a torture😂😂
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😂
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Such a cute nostalgic post
http://hashtagthequeen.blogspot.com/2018/07/barathon-2018-day-1-one-too-many.html
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Thanks so much Deepa!
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Oh yeah, I remember those days. We used to wait for the half-yearly and annual school holidays to rent the player (it was called a ‘deck’) and 3/4 cassettes. Only problem was at least two of the cassettes will not work or will have a lot of damage to the tape that there will be horizontal lines all over the TV screen. Very nostalgic post, Meena. Nicely done.
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those were the days! thanks varad!
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I remember those days of renting the tapes and finding a VCR/VCP to connect it. We did not have a player too but my uncles had summer vacation would start with the boring wedding tapes and then a movie 😉
What a fun memory you shared and I am happy I got a chance to read. See you around!
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Thanks so much for dropping by Parul. Glad you liked. 🙂
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such fond memories of those days, renting CDR, player, books, comics such fun to finish them in given time. now we have so many channels and apps but don’t have that fun
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So true. We had fun with little things.
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Ha ha! Miss the good old days! Now technology is going overboard! Nice one, Meena! 😊
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Thanks so much
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