Zee TV in the USA

Sometime earlier this year we planned on getting a dish network connection so that we could get the hindi channels-star,sahara,zee and the works.It turned out much more complicated than I had anticipated!.For starters you need a clear view of the southern sky and our apartment's backyard is laced with a line of tall trees.So on the appointed day the Dish tech guy came in with a compass and announced much to my chagarin that we could not get the service as the view of the southern sky was promptly blocked by trees.

Some months later when we ordered the cable service from Time Warner cable we found out that it offered Zee TV as an option for 15$ monthly.We signed up for it hoping to atleast view some desi programming after a long time.

Zee in USA is a well packaged channel with news in hindi,gujarati and punjabi apart from regular prime time soap operas.It also shows a matinee movie(some of them really antique!) on work week afternoons.

What really set me laughing(and still does!) is the absolutely slapstick approach to the hindi news coverage.For example all cricket analysis starts with something hillarious like "Rahul Bhai lage raho...".It continues to enlighten us on how "Guru Chappell ko yaad aayi Dada ki"!!
I recently saw a news item about a composer who has created a Bhojpuri song about how great would be if MS Dhoni and Sania Mirza tie the knot and the whole marriage is coordinated by Laloo.What a load of crap!!.

The news is really funny and its really speculation and sensationalization as opposed to reporting on matters of interest.I would rate DD news several notches up inspite of the drab presentation and that fuzzy INSAT b/w picture which served as a backdrop for "Mausam ki jaankaari".