Nostalgia

Speaking of The Shadows, they were the band who played with Cliff Richard. In fact they also starred in a few films with Cliff, such as "The Young Ones." But the reason I remember them is because of the following.

How many of the people in Bangladesh know that in the year 1964, when the then "Pilot Television" service of "East Pakistan" was started, the signature tune was a Shadows tune. "Apache" was another of the Shadows' hit played regularly on Dhaka Television.

I can remember that we used to eagerly turn on the TV set (NEC 19" black and white and with valves, so naturally, heavy) and listen to "Purano Shei Diner Katha" by Debabrata, "Tumi Bolechhile" by Shubir Sen and all the wonderful songs on TV. They also showed some Japanese programmes, NHK programmes etc. That was the beginning of Dhaka TV. Then one afternoon, we were thrilled to see the "Amader shuveccha nin." The TV was officially inaugurated on December 25, if I remember correctly. The first song was sung by Ferdausi Rahman, "Ami Shagorer Nil". The first drama was, I think. "Ektala Dotala". The late Dolly Ibrahim (comedy), Sumita Devi, Monirul Alam (he was a producer, but also acted in the drama. He was later killed), singer-cum-actor (I keep forgetting names, but he does not sing anymore, he acts only nowadays), who acted in the first drama (comedy) as a "Dhakaiya" -- they were all in my memory. I can still remember "Chompa Bone Tolo shur" by Syed Abdul Hadi in the first musical show, the musician (memory is still failing me) died just a few days prior to the telecast. The first instrumentalists were Swapon Kumar(?) (Violin), Khurshid Alam (Sitar), Bashudev (Flute), etc. The first band was "The Iolites" whose lead guitarist was the late Zafar Iqbal, who switched to acting later.

I think memory is painful, because it reminds us of a time when things were different, the climate was different, the environment was different and we miss our dear ones who were with us at that time and above all we cannot go back to that time.