bengaluru back in the 80s venugopala p would watch ramanand sagars ramayan with his children without fail on sunday mornings on saturday the retired teacher sat with his grandchildren and tuned into doordarshan telling them stories of a time when the serial imposed a virtual curfew on the streets for an hour as opposed to the very real lockdown now as the clock struck 9 on saturday morning three generations of 72yearold venugopalas family trooped into the living room of their puttenahalli home his 92yearold mother son daughter daughterinlaw and three grandkids to catch the opening episode venugopala told stoi that he was excited to watch the shows after almost 25years the shows were part of my routine then it is wonderful to make them a part of my day once again he said the family has been watching reruns of the epic series starring arun govil and deepika chikhalia as ram and sita the centre decided to bring back ramayan and br chopras mahabharat on television screens after requests poured in on social media seeking reruns to beat the stress of the coronavirus lockdown the epic dramas were first aired in 1987 and 1988 starting with ramayan venugopalas son dr nagesha panjirke who is a drug safety physician with a citybased mnc welcomed the decision as it brought back childhood memories we used to live in kasaragod back then and our family was the only one which owned a television set more than 25 people used to gather in our home to watch these shows the 42yearold recalls his wife shailini said their children aged 10 and 8 were familiar with stories from the ramayana and mahabharata and were curious about the series this brings back the practice of families sitting together spending time and watching something worthwhile together unlike today when people are busy on their phones she addedfollowing the epic dramas shah rukh khans series circus is also being retelecast the first episode was aired at 8pm on saturday the government is looking at bringing back other popular classics buniyaad mashaal and shankar nagdirected malgudi daystwitterati rejoice hours before the comeback of ramayan on saturday union ib minister prakash javadekar tweeted please tune in to ddnational at 9am 9 pm to watch ramayan and ddbharati at 12 noon and 7pm to watch mahabharat today and every day the tweet was swamped with comments memes and photos of families catching the show together we have gone back by over 21 years but not complaining said one user