The two constants were cricket and Hindi cinema, in that order. The lady who swabs the floors and the boy who dusts the books seemed equally conversant with the plots of films, the names of stars but never, alas, of directors. Rani Mukherjee, of course, was described as Bengal’s daughter in much the same tone as they referred with injured Bengali pride to the harsh punishment doled out to Sourav Ganguly. My highly educated friends and relatives found it equally important to keep in touch with both cricket and Hindi cinema, but spoke much more about the Bengali greats of cinema. They were familiar with the Bombay or Hindi greats as well as South Indians such as Kamalahasan and now Rajnikant with his great Japanese fan following. Bengali news channels also had headlines about the arrival in Chennai of six Japanese fans of Rajnikant’s, including a monk and star-struck woman who had returned after an unsuccessful try last year to meet their hero. This time they hoped to see him at the premiere of his latest release Chandramukhi.

But it was a completely different story when it came to serials. Here the saas-bahu Hindi ones offered little competition to the Bengali serials, which also had family plots. There were Bengali serials from early evening onwards which my sister watched avidly, her only alternative being films in English. But when it was announced that Sholay was going to be screened for the nth time in the next few days, there was a unanimous decision that everyone would stay up for it.

Also, Bengali channels have quiz programmes for children, one very funny programme where the same performer does excellent imitations of Bengali celebrities like Sourav Ganguly and Rituparno Ghosh with the right amount of irreverence. There are Bengali equivalents of Hindi singing contests with an audience performing Mexican waves and distinguished judges. I am afraid that programmes of Bengali music, particularly on Doordarshan, tend to be dull. With solemn-looking accompanists looking drearily at each other while the singer or singers either look equally solemn, there is no effort to communicate with the audience. Also, the backgrounds of both music programmes and serials tend to be cluttered with too much furniture or fussy backdrops. In that respect, Hindi serials are far more professional, although Kolkata does not lag behind as far as camerapersons go.