Chapter 11: A Picture Beyond Words
In the quiet lanes of Lucknow, 1980 began like any other—children playing with cloth kites, women bargaining in bazaars, transistor radios crackling with Vividh Bharati. But in a dimly lit room above a textile godown, Ajay and his team were chasing light—colourful, moving light.
It had all started in early 1980, shortly after the success of BhashaCODE. With momentum behind him and a growing team of young minds, Ajay decided to pursue his next dream: a fully Indian-made colour television.
But to understand that dream, one had to look back.
A Brief History: The Colour of the World
Television had first come to India in 1959, a small government experiment in Delhi. Black-and-white images flickered into a few privileged homes, and it remained that way for over a decade.
By the 1960s and 70s, countries like the U.S., UK, and Japan had begun full-scale colour broadcasting. Sony, RCA, and Philips were global giants. But colour TVs were luxury items even in the West—costing hundreds of dollars, equivalent to several months of middle-class income.
In India, by 1980, a black-and-white TV cost between ₹3,000 to ₹5,000. A colour TV—if imported—could cost ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 (an enormous amount when the average government salary was under ₹1,000 per month).
And so, colour TV was a dream. Only embassies, large hotels, and a few elite families had one.
Ajay's goal was audacious:
"We'll build one. And make it for under ₹3,000. For every Indian family."
The Nirmaan Team Expands
Ajay restructured Nirmaan Technologies into three core divisions by February 1980:
BhashaCODE Unit – continuing development of Hindi-based computing
Audio-Visual Hardware Unit – focused on colour TV, led by his college friend Vijay Mehta
Signals & Transmission Group – exploring ways to send picture and sound over radio lines
He recruited a wave of new engineers and interns from IIT Kanpur, BHU, and Roorkee, and formed smaller task teams:
CRT Development Team – to locally engineer cathode-ray tubes using recycled glass
Colour Signal Processing Team – to understand PAL encoding systems used in Europe
Casing & Design Team – to create wooden and plastic cases that were durable, elegant, and Indian in style
Professor Joshi connected him with contacts at Doordarshan R&D, and even helped secure imported RGB schematics from Germany and Japan for reference.
The Workshop Buzzes to Life
Early 1980 was filled with the scent of solder, the clicks of tools, and the whirr of test screens. Engineers worked day and night modifying black-and-white TVs into colour prototypes. They stripped parts from radios, used mica sheets from old telephone relays, and even borrowed speakers from school projectors.
Ajay would often bring Bharat along to these workshops. Sometimes the little boy would hand out resistors. Sometimes he just watched. But one day, as Ajay and Vijay debated the color balance of a test image, Bharat walked up with a peacock feather.
"Use this," he said. "The real colours of India."
The lab fell silent.
They calibrated their settings to match the shades of the feather—turquoise, green, amber, and blue. That peacock became the first clear image displayed in colour on their prototype later that year.
Making It Affordable
Ajay was adamant about not depending on foreign imports. At that time, India imported most high-end technology:
Transistors from Japan
Picture tubes from Germany
Microchips from the U.S.
Switches and knobs from Taiwan
Even plastic molds from Korea
Import duties were high. Spare parts came slowly.
So Ajay's team:
Reverse engineered foreign components
Found local suppliers in Kanpur and Delhi for circuits
Sourced glass locally for screen covers
Collaborated with artisans in Lucknow for casings made of polished rosewood and neem
This brought down costs. What would have cost ₹12,000 abroad, they could now produce for ₹2,950.
By December 1980, they had built their first full working unit.
Radio, Telephone & the Dream of More
As they celebrated, Bharat sat on a crate, turning the knob of an old radio.
"Pitaji, if we can talk with someone on this radio… and see pictures on the TV… can we see and talk at the same time? Like you do in your office meetings?"
Ajay smiled. "That's not how it works, beta."
"But what if it could?"
And once again, the seed was planted.
Inspired by Bharat's innocent curiosity, Ajay and his team began discussing video calling, signal compression, and camera miniaturization.
They called it—Project Drishti.
But that was for another time.
For now, as 1981 began, Lucknow had its first desi colour TV, and the country had its first affordable model—ready to be shown to the world.