CHENNAI: November 21 is World TV day, declared so by the UN General Assembly in 1996, to encourage "global exchanges of television programmes focusing on issues such as peace, security, economic and social development".

But while world over the television grabs more eyeballs, here are two women who decided to get the TV out of their homes, and one who grew up without a television.

With her first son Rishi, Shalini Ravichandran had no rules about TV. He would spend at least five hours a day in front of the telly while Shalini was at work. When her second son Rinit came along, Shalini decided she was going to do it differently.

One morning, in 2004 before Rinit was born, Shalini gave away the three TVs in her house. There was a lot of opposition from Rishi, but Shalini held her ground.

"I found that it was adding to Rishi's violent behaviour. Throwing things and punching were fun to him. We felt it was because of TV. It was also affecting his studies. My second son has grown up without a television," says Shalini. She says the family interacts a lot more now.

"We actually eat at the dining table and talk," she adds.

Around December last year, Ritu R decided she had had enough of her son watching TV. "I found that he was picking up wrong gestures so we decided to cut it out," she says. "It's been a year since we ‘dropped' the TV. I like the peace and quiet we have at home and the fact that we spend more time together as a family," she adds.

Paediatrician Nisha Reddy, now 33, grew up in a household without a television. She feels she has lost nothing because of it.

"My parents didn't want us to be glued to the television and wanted us to widen our interests. Also, we had a limited budget and had to choose between a computer and a TV. We played a lot more, and we read a lot," she says.

kamini.mathai@timesgroup.com