Sunday was a schedule everybody knew by heart

It started early and it started without you. Someone was already up, the bathroom bucket was already filling, and the set was already on in a room where nobody was properly dressed yet. Nobody switched it on for a programme. It went on because it was Sunday.

By the middle of the day the house had people in it. An uncle who arrived without warning, plates that came out only for guests, the good glasses. The television stayed on through all of it and nobody was really watching, and everybody would have noticed if it stopped.

Then the evening, which was quieter and stricter. Dinner on the floor, plates balanced on knees, and a rule about not talking that nobody had ever actually stated.

Chitrahaar, Rangoli, and the songs in between

The song programmes were the reason to sit still. Thirty minutes of film songs, one after another, with no way to know what was coming next. You could not rewind it and you could not look it up. If you missed it you had missed it, and that was the end of the matter.

That is the part streaming cannot give back. Not the songs, which are all a search away, but the not knowing. The whole feeling lived in the gap between one song ending and the next one starting.

The programme guide, such as it was

Sunday Morning runs until midday. The set is on before anyone has decided to watch it, the bathroom is occupied, and the film songs are the gentle ones.

The Song Showcase takes the middle of the day, twelve until five. This is the Chitrahaar slot, thirty minutes of film songs one after another, and the reason homework got abandoned. On Wednesday and Friday evenings it takes the eight o'clock hour too, which is when it actually aired.

Evening runs from five until eight. Dinner happens on the floor during it. Nobody talks much.

After Transmission is everything from eleven at night until six in the morning. The programmes have run out, the test card is up, and the set is still warm.

You do not have to wait for any of it. The clock is in charge by default, but you can pick a slot and stay in it.

And then transmission ended

Late at night the programmes ran out. The test card came up, that pattern of coloured bars everyone can still draw from memory, and then the tone, and then nothing until morning. A television that stopped is difficult to explain to anyone who has never seen one do it.

This theme follows the real clock in India. Come here in the morning and the family is up and the set is already on. Come at midnight and everyone is asleep, and the set is still warm.

Questions people ask

What is Sunday Doordarshan?

A 1990s Indian drawing room that follows the real time in India. The room changes through the day and the songs change with it, the way one channel and one schedule used to work. It runs free in your browser.

Does it really change with the time?

Yes. There is a morning scene, an afternoon one with guests, an evening one with dinner on the floor, and a night one after transmission has ended. The clock on the wall is the real Indian time.

What was Chitrahaar?

A half hour of Hindi film song clips on Doordarshan, first aired in 1982, on Wednesday and Friday evenings. The name means a garland of pictures. For a lot of people it was the only way to see film songs at all.

Can I pick the time of day myself?

Yes. The clock is in charge by default, but you can choose a slot and stay in it. Someone visiting at two in the morning should not have to wait until Sunday to see the morning room.

Is this connected to Doordarshan?

No. It is not affiliated with Prasar Bharati or Doordarshan or any broadcaster. It is made by people who grew up watching, and the programme names are used to describe what people remember.

Some of the schedule looks wrong to me.

It probably is somewhere. It was reconstructed from memory and from what could be checked, and memory disagrees with itself. If you remember what actually aired and when, write to us and we will fix it.