It looks like having come a long way from irritatingly hopping between channels airing KKusum, Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki, KKSBKBT [if an Indian cannot decode it, he has no right to be called an Indian] and other such long names which could be mistaken for abbreviated expletives. For me all of them had almost the same story and even some characters. To understand plasma physics might be easier.. though my mom and sister might vehemently disagree.
The other alternative was Star World or Zee English where I happened to miss the most wanted serials every day as either work or traffic kept me away from home.
Well now here I just enjoy watching back to back of Simpsons, Seinfeld, Friends, Everybody loves Raymond, King of Queens, Will and Grace and then some. Cliche as it may sound, I never get tired of watching even the repeat telecasts. The evenings just fly by.
The other day one of my colleagues asked - what for lunch?
I replied - rice, dal, curd and MASH.
Still remember those early star tv days - evening 7 pm was the time for MASH [I believe]. Just love watching it all over again.
It is not that I hate Indian serials. There have been some pretty good ones.... I liked - Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai or the very old Nukkad but then they really cannot stand up against those expletives for the whole evening.
It is not just the hindi channels but this problem persists with telugu (my mother tongue), tamil and myriad number of Indian language channels. I really cannot stand these, an episode of which goes on like:
5 min recap of previous episode.
Male lead [Aashish]: Asha, I love you
Female lead [Asha]: I don't but I will get married to you.
Mother-in-law [don't ask me whose]: I love you both but Asha should marry your brother Somesh.Ad break
A short recap of what happened before the ad.
Aashish: I never knew I had a brother!!!
mother-in-law sobs, Aashish looks disturbed.
Another male character: Asha cannot marry.... she is married to someone else. I have a board meeting to attend.. I am going.
Ad-break
A short recap of what happened before the ad.
Aasha: No................ that is a lie [long silence..We could use it for October 30th]
Mother-in-law [don't ask me whose]: I will see to that the marriage happens. Let me see who can stop it. Now let me go and make some pickle.
End of episode. A contest
question 1: guess whether Asha and Aashish will get married?
question 2: what pickle does the mother-in-law make?
Guess they should have prizes for guessing in another how many episodes will they get married and how long will it take to get divorced or one of them dies and they again get married [yeah, the person does not really die.. as is exposed later]
This is pretty much the skeleton of all the soaps.
It is not only the story in these that makes me sick but the incomprehensible relations that come forth between the characters - guess "Bold and the beautiful" needs to own up some responsibility here. Yeah, the soaps were not originally from our kitchens, right? But we over did it a lot, forgetting what a decent laugh at home looks like.
So as I had lunch with MASH a few moons back, MASH temporarily went off air. There I flipped through the channels and came across a queer program - a reality show as they call it. "Julie says Sam might not be the father of her child" read the day's title. Some sobs, some angry remarks and fists followed. Then followed a DNA report which said Tom.. wait no Sam (what's in a name) was indeed the father of the child. Damn it!! :)
This followed for a few days while MASH remained off air. Everyday a DNA report was brought in to confirm if this donkey or that monkey was the father, mother or whatever.. Finally got sick of it and as I was contemplating knocking TV off my lunch menu, thankfully MASH was back.
Most of the ads aired on the free to air channels here cannot really stand up to the Aamir Khan's "thanda ad" or asian paint's "waah sunil babu.. badhiya hai" ad. They simply lack the creativity.
As I talked to one of my friends in Chicago, I was taken aback when I was expostulated for not following any of the US ball games. I was adamant that I did not like any one of them. 10 days later I cheered Spurs, as I watched them on TV, win the NBA finals against Pistons. Sports can really be infectious here - but then again they are pretty much restrained to the 3 balls- base ball, basket ball and football [read rugby].
But again what do "we" have to boast about - cricket and cricket and cricket. While a minority of the crowd might prefer watching F1 and soccer leagues also, cricket is pretty much the staple diet we have been brought up on.
Hope India soon tunes into more of Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai, walk the talk and NHL championships.
A la prochaine...........