The good old days – watching cartoons

I have been in love with cartoons since my childhood. I have grown up watching them on my color TV (if you are curious enough to know what brand it was of, it’s Sharp – more on that later in future) like crazy. I was and still am fond of cartoon characters, especially those from the Disney’s cartoon shows. I just love the way these characters tell us their stories. Though, all of them are fiction, they somehow connect with us. Few things I really appreciate of the cartoon makers are that they somehow keep characters’ innocence alive and manage to convey good messages through their stories. Having that child-like innocence is difficult and I strongly believe that it is a rare characteristic. Now, imagine how difficult it would be to put that much emotions, innocence and sense altogether into something that doesn’t even exists. It is purely of heart and art with a little crazy brain. The second difficult thing is to write the script that is so pure, simple, funny, entertaining having ability to make big impact on the minds of audience. The stuff you grow up watching definitely makes an impact on your mindset and thinking process and I can’t thank enough to the makers of cartoons who filled my free time with such beautiful as well as meaningful stories through cartoon shows.

I feel sad to accept the fact that I haven’t watched any cartoon show in the recent times but I do wish to watch in near future. The old days were golden when I used to watch most of them. I still remember how I used to wake up early during my school days to watch ‘Good morning Disney‘ show before I leave for tuition and used to watch ‘Disney hour‘ show in the evening after coming back from the school. Those were the days when they didn’t have dedicated TV channels for cartoon shows except cartoon network which used to broadcast the cartoon shows till 9pm only. I used to watch most of the cartoon shows airing on CN at that time, Tom & Jerry, Captain planet, Scooby doo, Flinstone etc. to name the few. The list is even longer when it comes to Disney as I might have watched all of them aired during the years of schooling. The adventures of gummy bears, TaleSpin, Ducktales are few among my favorites.

As the years passed, more cartoon shows came into existence. By the time I entered into college, there came number of channels into existence dedicated for cartoon shows. For the guy like me, it was an icing on the cake. I had gone mad and was watching cartoon shows for entire day forgetting about the sunset and sunrise. Those were the days when I used to get scolded by my dad for watching TV for long hours. No, my parents were never against watching cartoons but only the idea of watching TV for such long hours. The criticism by my dad never bothered me and I continued watching cartoon shows during my college days. By the time I finished my Masters, I had a long list of shows I had watched and the memories of happy old days. It seems very unbelievable when I look back and count the number of shows I have watched during last 25 years of my life.

Everything changes with time and same happened with me after school. I looked for the variety in cartoon shows. I was lucky to find shows like Transformers, Bayblade, Pokemon etc. during those years. Those were different from the rest of the cartoon shows I had watched before. They were full of action and fight, the Sci-Fi kind. I found them exciting and watched to the best of my availability managing my study time. Those were the days when cartoon shows and I were inseparable. I used to enjoy every minute of watching cartoons. There was excitement, enthusiasm and willingness to watch. Those were the happiest days of my life.

I haven’t watched any cartoon show (series would be more proper word) in the past couple of years. The last one I watched was Naruto as far as I remember. It was my bad that I could not finished it off and ended up watching only first season. It was a pretty long series though to get hold of but is still on my list. I have never questioned my passion for watching cartoon shows as I knew that they all were worth watching. You cannot simply ignore the power of influence something has over you. I believe, every show I watched has made an impact on my mind contributing to the kind of person I have become today. And, why wouldn’t that happen when you have shows like The adventures of gummy bears that teaches us the real meaning of family. The shows like Winnie the pooh shows us how strong the bond of friendship should be. I learned to deal with adverse situations showing courage by watching shows like TaleSpin. The life lessons were countless and learning through their way was equally joyful. It is sad to see myself away from watching cartoons but I have decided to make a comeback. I will be watching cartoon shows soon. On separate note, I am a big fan of animated movies too and I will share more about that journey in the future posts.

Now talking about the quality, I really don’t know what kind of cartoon shows are being aired these days. Are they good enough to be watched by kids or not? I don’t know. However, it really breaks my heart when I meet someone who doesn’t watch/has never watched cartoon shows. Sometimes, I feel pity of them. I just really can’t understand how could they miss on something full of heart, art, science and sense? Tell me how could they?

All in all, I am a cartoon freak looking to watch more and more until I die. The good old days made me write this and if I don’t force myself stop here, I might end up writing a book so better I stop here. Taking this opportunity, I would like to announce that there will be more posts coming under this series – the good old days wherein I will share the memories of the past to remind myself how blessed I have been so far. Before you leave, tell me how did you find this write-up? Did you enjoy the read? Do you watch cartoon shows too? Which are they? Share your memories in the comments.