The video revolution of the 1970s

It was in the late1970s that the video revolution took place.  Video recorders and playback machines came into the market.  It was like bringing India's cinema theatres into our living room. This is significant when one studies how a community turns inward in a self-ghettoising way instead of interacting with the larger community, once one can access movies and TV shows from the home country.  Today, just about every Indo-Canadian house(not mine though) has a forty plus inchTV screen playing the Indian channel where commercials are in Hindi or Punjabi and for spices and jewellery much of the time.

Once the revolution started,  we could watch Indian films on video machines which could be rented from Arti International, the Indian spice store.  The owner of the store was one Mr. Naik, and he deserves a post by himself as a successful early entrepreneur.  He rented the machines at (I think) twenty dollars for the weekend and rented movies - in those days Beta still had an edge over VHS but I think he had both kinds.  So there were regular Movie parties in the community, with guests spending the day in the host's basement (in those days, the basement was where most people gathered since the houses did not have  the mega size party-areas and family rooms that today's immigrants live in) seeing two movies a day for two days while eating a steady stream of snacks and meals. 

I was not part of this party-type crowd but knew about them, having been at Arti International when customers came to take away the machines and half a dozen movies for the weekend, and Mr. Naik chattted about the movies and those who rented them.

I bought one of those clunkers from Mr. Naik, a used one for about a thousand dollars,  once I started my PALI shows on VPW 11 (later it became VPW 13).  It was stolen one evening - P was away at some conference and Raji was playing at some badminton tournament, and she and I came back just as it was turning dark - around 7 p.m. - and as we drove in from the back lane into the garage, the thieves must have seen us and taken off by the front door. The back door had been broken and the only thing that seemed to be missing was the video tape player, its cord ripped off and on the floor. Then I bought two portable video players - and the two together cost only a little more than I  had paid for one just a few years earlier.  Both are still in my basement, still working last I tested them.
I forget what one paid as movie rentals but it was considerably more than we paid more recently.  Now that Blockbuster has closed its doors, looks like the video revolution is over and other techie facilities have taken over.

I started on this video-post as a prelude to my work with Mr. Thawani on his Friends of India television show and how that led to my involvement with dance instruction, but that will come next!