“What will happen to Sugna now? Sumitra’s jewellery in the last episode was good na? I like Dharamraj Mahiavanshi’s moustache. Santu got new clothes. Krishna is very cute. Did you see the color combination of curtains in Maayka?” This was the chatter around me in a party. Yeah, in this party, all aunties and ladies and girls sat together in a corner, while men formed groups of 5-10 and children ran, jumped, hopped from one end to the other! And the discussion is on the characters, dresses, jewellery and furniture of the tele-serials.
After a long time, somebody observed that I had not contributed anything to the conversation and asked me the reason. “I don’t watch these tele-serials”, I said. “Then which ones do you follow”, asked another one. “I don’t follow any TV serial”, I told them.
There were looks of disbelief around me. And simultaneously everybody started talking. “How do you spend your time?” “Why don’t you watch them?” “You must be watching atleast 1 or 2?” “You must watch Jai Shree Krishna, said an elderly aunty, it gives a spiritual environment at home”! And more questions/suggestions like these would have been bombarded on me, but thankfully, the host called us for dinner!
But it made me think, as to why do I never watch these serials. It didn’t take me long to note the reasons.
Reason no. 1: I don’t identify myself with anything that is shown in these serials. They are so melodramatic and sometimes so seriously hilarious! The characters are either too good or too bad! The storyline moves with a snail’s pace and is mostly predictable. Everybody is always dressed up for the party with designer sarees/suits and matching jewellery and bindis (even when they are sleeping)! Nobody wears simple cotton clothes or pyjamas when at home! Shirts and jackets of the guys are so very multi-colored! Loudness is IN! So the Saas-Bahus and now Betiyaan and Lados, Maaykas and Sarural are not for me! And watching them is a sheer waste of time. So, sorry aunties and friends, I don’t share your love.
Reason no. 2: I live in a male dominated family who are big TV buffs! (I can see the senior raising eyebrows on this!). So for the early part of the evening, the remote is controlled by the junior and later part of the evening and night it’s the senior’s turn to do so. So, if you ask me about the Hannah Montanas, Power Rangers, Richie Rich, Zack and Cody, Mr. Bean, M.A.D., Shamsher Sikander, Ninja Hattori and Kenichi I can give a day long presentation on them.
If you ask me about the latest IPL team scores, rankings, purple cap and orange cap holder, Kylie Kwong’s and Nigella’s recipes, Bondi Rescue, Snake Wranglers, Croc Chronicles, SOME part of any movie shown on HBO, PIX, Star Movies, UTV World Movies (Ya, somebody in our family has this unique habit of seeing 2-3 different movies simultaneously. How? Whenever there is an ad break on one channel, he moves to the other!), I can give you all the details as I am the silent spectator to all this!
The TV in our home has only one use for me and that is to watch the English News. (The exploits of Hindi News channels I will dwell on some other time!)