Imagining our life without the essence of entertainment is a task next to impossible. What if someone asks you to give up on your dose of TV channels, mobile, laptop and all other kind of electronic gadgets? Even an imaginary picture of this situation creates a massive scowl on our face, which just indicates that we have drowned deep into the sea of entertainment world. Eliminating the entertainment factor from our lives is an arduous job, because getting strained in the daily hustle-bustles of life just calls for a relaxation to soothe the stressed mind. Today, people have succeeded in finding source of entertainment in almost all spheres of world, then be it a Youtube video, Whatsapp jokes, Instagram posts, TV daily soaps, or even a thing as playful as Snapchat filters.
These all are the latest fads of finding happiness and fun even in the minute things to make our dull life colourful and jovial. But if we travel back to old days, we figure out that people were way more creative and innovative regarding various forms of entertainment. Today, these modes have become an obscure memory and we call such modes ‘outdated’, but they were a true representation of Swadesi ‘swag’, exclusively to be found in India. Let us have a look over these old mediums of entertainment which have faded in history or are on the way…
Street Bioscopes- If time travel machine would have allowed you to go back around 40-50 years back, one thing you would have surely noticed is the prominent existence of ‘Bioscopewallah’ who formed a major source of entertainment for both children and adults. These ‘Bioscopewallahs’ used to roam around the gullies and just their one loud call used to have children running in the direction of the bioscope machine. A box-like instrument having a lens-hole on one of its side to peep in and view shows a reel of moving images thus creating an impact of watching a film was a humongous rage back in 1950s and 1960s till up to 1975. But then as India started feeling the heat of industrialization and globalization, these bioscopewallahs started dooming down, only to become a golden page in the history of entertainment culture. “Bioscopewallah used to charge only 50 paise for a 5 minute movie. They mostly were the songs from recently released movies. As television sets were a luxury at that time, these songs only gave us the pleasure and delight of watching something very entertaining. Also, standing in the queue used to be time 
consuming, but we as children always were excited whenever the Bioscopewallah came to our chawl,” reminisces Neelam, a woman currently in her late 40s. As the multiplexes replaced single-screen theaters and as the tv sets made their firm places in almost every single household, these people who made business with the wooden box of entertainment eventually got retrenched. Even if this mode has got extinct, but the fun memories it created are still alive in the hearts of people belonging to that era.
Puppetry- Although, it is not limited to India, but this art form is known as ‘Kathaputli’ in a very distinguished way in India. Different states of India have their self-created puppets and are classified as glove puppets, rod puppets, string puppets and shadow puppets. This art form wherein the artists used to travel with their equipment to perform their shows during special occasion is facing the fear of extinction currently. It is clear that people have shown their back to this art form due to heavy influence of movies and daily soaps and somewhere it is getting downplayed. Involving humorous conversations between characters controlled by strings, this lively art is now merely limited to the locales of certain regions, mainly Rajasthan and Southern India.
Movie Gatherings- When Mumbai was majorly flocked with chawls back till 1990s, one thing evident was watching movies together. During festive season, especially Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali, a special and much-awaited screening would have been arranged in the chawl. A big white screen, 
with projector playing recent Bollywood movie kept in front of it, was the sole reason for making masses assemble together. These were the places where people shared their happiness and unique movie reviews and enjoyed the festive night. This screening, which used to be a custom back then, has almost vanished into thin air.
Circuses- This one was an incomparable hit till last decade. People from all age groups enjoyed watching those thrill games. But due to certain laws,restriction on usage of live animals and negligence shown by government, circuses are slowly disappearing as a major form of entertainment, much to the dismay of its regular audience.
These are the art forms which are on the verge of dying, but they were the ones who bonded people and kept them connected with a strong string of solidarity!
