SONY TV has a special place in my heart. It was the first big purchase in our house back in 1985. It was the first purchase that I personally took interest as I wanted our living room look grand.
I had started reading about SONY and National companies quite some time back and was fascinated how innovation had enabled the JAPANESE economy to recover after the devastating loss in World War 2.
COLOUR TV was the in thing then.
Our SONY TV looked something like this:
Extremely soft Volume and Channel buttons. Soft CRT. Wood Paneled. It had everything.
It was owner’s pride and everyone envy!
Buying the SONY TV in 1985
Back in 1985, India was still a socialist country and it felt high quality goods were anathema. But, thirst for high quality is a human instinct and Govts. will never recognize this truth. Even today.
So, these TVs had to be purchased in Chennai where they would land unauthorized from the Sea.
So, we all five of us with our chauffeur drove all the way from Mysore to Chennai. In the process we visited Mahabalipuram, V G Paneerdas resorts and Beach and T Nagar where my parents stayed.
Here are some pics of that Trip.
On the way back, we went through a tense time in the Karnataka – Tamil Nadu border as the TV had no bill! And, by the way no warranty also!!
Finally, it landed at our home!!
As I said it changed the complexion of our living room!
In fact, one of our relative pointed out that by holding on to the sticker on the CRT we were sacrificing some 5% of viewing area. We were prepared to lose. It was after all our pride.
This TV stayed on with us for 22 years. Reluctantly, we parted with it somewhere in 2007-8.
Later on we bought NEB, which was being sold by my dear cousin in Hyderabad and took it to Bengaluru by bus.
Later, as my son grew up, we purchased a large screen CRT as I wanted to show him movies like Mckenna’s Gold, Magnificent Seven, Good Bad Ugly, Lion King, Where Eagles Dare, Tom Jerry, Maya Bazaar, Missamma, and such.
Luckily, I was able to show some of these movies to my nephews also when they visited us during summer holidays.
And, I purposefully, skipped LED led flat panel TVs. I was never happy with the picture quality of large screen LEDs. Moreover, my son started his preparations for College Exams and TV had become the least priority.
My dear father, as he aged, lost interest in watching TV and we also got caught up in other things.
Now, as we have some spare time, we decided to buy a SONY TV as it was and will be our favorite.
So, we visited SONOVISION Kukkatpally and enquired. As usual, like in all TV showrooms LG Bhajan was played. But, we stuck to SONY TV and we should thank Shri. Dattu and Branch Manager for the good customer service.
We bought the latest one and here it is:
This is our new SONY XR8 55 Inch TV.
For a few days we retained the sticker as a Drishti.
As always the display is fantastic and very soft on the eyes. We got it for a very good price!!
