Monday, May 7, 2012

Serial Addiction

During the 4 long months that I have been away from blogging, I was doing a lot. That is, a lot of daily soap watching. These daily soaps are very much like cigarettes. The first day you watch a tele serial thinking what a load of crap is aired on television nowadays. The next day you watch the same soap because you are curious to know if the same crap will continue the next day or maybe it has improved slightly. The third day you watch another daily soap wanting to know if all soaps are as crappy as the one you had watched the previous day. And before you know it you are pretty much hooked onto these daily soaps.
That is what happened to me anyways. Unfortunately I had lots of time on my hands and no sense to use this time constructively (such as blogging). So what do I do? I plonk myself on the couch, nibble on the fruits that my mom used to goad me with and, watch these tele-serials endlessly. But after watching these serials I have begun to appreciate my life a little more. Let me explain.
The central character in these serials is played by the stocky and strict mother-in-law. She’s not evil but her sole purpose in life is to ensure that her daughter-in-law is under her strict vigilance 24 hours a day and her DIL fulfils every whim and need of her son. She keeps a hawk’s eye on her DIL and God save the poor, meek DIL if she ever makes a mistake in her household duties. In fact in one daily soap, the MIL keeps roasted papad under her son’s bed. Reason? Because she doubts that her DIL is not having any relationship with her son in the marital bed. I know it’s incredulous, too tacky to believe that they air such nonsense on television. What’s more unbelievable, is that once the MIL’s doubts are confirmed (the papads are not broken, you see), she gives an earful to her DIL, who stands meekly with her head bowed down. Enough to pull your hair out! After watching this, I was thankful that my MIL is sweet, caring and a zillion times better than the ones in these soaps.
The next important character is the hero of the daily soap, son to the all-dominating mother and husband to the meek, submissive wife. He is a complete workaholic giving priority to his work over his wife. He’s also a devoted son who will not speak against his mom no matter what the situation demands. But what’s unbelievable is that, even though he’s married to his wife for several years they sleep separately (hence the case of unbroken roasted papad-if you have still not got it, duh!) and have no sexual relationship with each other. Ahem! Hard to believe? Even I could not!!! When his authoritarian mom grills his wife he stands in the side over-looking the tamasha. I am thankful that I have a husband who is nothing like the husbands in these serials (all though I wouldn’t mind if his looks could be altered to match that of Arnav in ‘Iss Pyar Ko Kya Naam Doon’*cough,cough*)
Finally we have the most meek, dumb, submissive, toothless bahu/wife/daughter of the century. Seriously , where do we see such women in reality? The selfless woman who serves green tea every time her husband returns home, when her MIL keeps loading her with household chores, she just bows her head down and says “jee maaji, haan maaji”. She loves her husband but is too afraid to show any emotions in front of him and is just satisfied with the titbits of love that her husband throws in her direction. Aaaaargghh! She is so naïve that she is ready to sacrifice her life for the sake of her scheming and devious co-sister. Waaahhh! Bahu ho to aisi J
The lives of these daily soap families seem so eventful that almost every day something or the other keeps happening. There’s never a dull moment in their lives. In comparison my life is so dead- no one keeps scheming to kill me, my husband does not have a past affair so that his ex girlfriend can return back to upset his present life, I don’t have cancer or some other terminal disease. Umm, on second thoughts I am glad that my life is dead. So why do I keep watching these serials? They are mindless entertainment and I want to see how much of the crap I can endure until I permanently switch off the television.

4 comments:

  1. papad!! seriously!! and what if the papad had been broken into a zillion pieces? shows her suputra is a bull let loose? :D

    the only serial i ever watched was Mayamraga and its been ages since then and oh yes, i used to watch Shanti

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  2. Yes, the papad proves that creativity is zero in most Indian serials :) The only serial that I find good is Crime Patrol. I hope they keep up the good standards...

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  3. Thankfully I have lost my addiction because of my baby girl. Everytime I sit down to watch a serial she starts crying from her cradle :(

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