I saw you on the TV!

Its the morning after the TV program went on the air..

Not just any program but one in which they record histories of several people who have come from other parts of the world to live in Spain. Last night's program included my own story. Elsewhere on this blog there is an account of how producers of the program called 'Destino España' or 'Destination Spain' came to spend a day with me and shot several hours of film. This was then reduced to a seven minute segment to be included in the program last night on Channel 1 of the national Spanish network.

Well, arrived the hour, midnight and about ten minutes late, the program started. Everyone who knew me was aware of the time and the date of the program and we did not know exactly when in the program my turn would come.. We need not have worried as it turned out that my piece was first up, which meant that those of us who are early sleepers could get off after about the first ten minutes!!

The seven minutes passed in a flash, and we felt that it was so short after the long period of filming. Seeing it later at leisure on the internet it appeared much longer. We had absolutely no prior knowledge of what it would look like. In the event the IM Communications team did a very good job and the action flowed smoothly including all the main stories. 

The stories about the photogenic nature of the Spanish cities and landscape, the celebrations in the street when they thought the world was going to end with a collision involving Hailley's comet,  and the one about the Sikh clothesline on the moon have all survived the cut. I find hilarious and laugh at the encounter with our friends at a local bar (La Dolce Vita). MariCruz tells the story of my ability to grab the attention in any situation. She cant resist the 'This Indian is with us' to get the girls in a Tourist Information Office to concentrate on her questions!! What, me worry?
The video can be seen from the Spanish TV's Destino España website. Click here.

The first phone call from friends and family comes about five minutes after the program ends even though it is 1 am, well past most people's bedtime.

Now its the day after..and virtually everyone we meet on the street, looks at us (Marisol is also very much part of the whole video sequence) with a knowledgeable look, as if they know us a lot better. There are smiles and people stop us to say that they had seen us on the TV program last night, how much they had enjoyed it and that they loved the program. We play a guessing game of 'yes', 'no', 'maybe' as we make eye contact with everyone we pass.

There is a continuous stream of emails from our friends who have seen the video and liked what they saw. Some of these mails are from people we knew more than thirty years ago! They have managed to look up our emails from the Internet.

We have sent out links of the website where it can also be seen but of course the dialogue is all in Spanish, which will make it impossible for the Indian side of the family to understand the conversation.

We may have to construct a video with subtitles in English.

Basking in the sunshine of the attention...lets hope it remains good.