Living in a Sitcom!

Since childhood, the television has been my best friend. Even when everybody criticized the idiot box, I couldn’t be more fascinated to get in touch with the outside world through so many channels yet one, our loved ‘TV’. Cartoons were my favourite but I also loved wildlife documentaries and watching anything associated with ‘cute’ and it felt like I was exploring a completely different world altogether. When I go back, that was the best time I had; staying at my fixed spot with popcorn and a good movie or my favourite cartoon series, with nothing to worry except for what mom was going to cook for the next meal! Bliss, indeed.

The trend changed, our liking changed and all our favourite channels came up with serials sharing confessions of high school kids, we could totally empathize with. Then, there an era of the typical Saas-Bahu serials, which went on for decades and is still going on; people roaming wandering at the streets of our unexplored India like gypsies; laughter shows; solving mysteries and how could we forget ‘Aahat’, the only scary show I remember. Our own beloved Indian television and the endless list of series we can never forget.

What we didn’t realize, was that serials influenced us as much as advertisements or movies affect our lives. Somehow, we started dreaming the dreams with happy endings, dreaming about luxury, success, friendship, love and everything all so sugary and perfect. We accepted the things we saw and made it a part of our life. We got more acquainted to the western culture as we were exposed to the channels broadcasted internationally and as teenagers; we started craving the best of friends spending hours together and even crushing on those super cute guys who could be the only one to make our life more beautiful. What we didn’t realize, was that we started living in these sitcoms!

Well, there’s more to the ones afflicted with this obsession with sitcoms. We have started living in a world of our own. We have another way to look at our own discrepancies. We chose to save all those pictures before time flies and it’s time to say goodbye. We share more time sharing on the internet than to share with our closest ones for the world seems too busy to listen to our story. We choose to raise our voice and write on the wrongs and rights in the society for we wish to bring a change, individually if not wholly. We’ve woven fantasies of our own and we wish to relive them. An avid reader could explain this at a greater depth but the ones so deeply indulged in sitcoms and the life of those characters might share a mutual feeling.

I have had this syndrome for long and I’m not afraid to admit it. Sometimes, I’ve loved fictional characters more than people and they take me to my own virtual world. As I see these characters perform, I go through the same emotional phase they do. I cry, smile, laugh and fall in love with them and somehow, I end up craving for those happy ever after endings. These fallacies make me feel like I want to live them. Isn’t it beautiful how as kids we felt all those cartoon characters and superheroes had superpowers we could have someday and today, we wish for things we aspire, all this while inspired virtually by mere reflection of everything that we’ve yearned? Sugar, spice and everything nice! But the moment I go off from this virtual world, it’s all doomed.

I’ve laughed harder on Barney Stinson’s jokes and Sheldon Cooper’s idiosyncrasies; I’ve seen a part of me in Monica Geller and Robin Scherbatksy. I believe in love when it’s Ross and Rachel or Monica and Chandler. I’ve been fascinated the way Benedict Cumberbatch takes me to the world of Sherlock Holmes and somehow I’ll be afraid that Dr. Cal Lightman will catch me if I ever lie. I’ve lived in serials and books and cried more with these characters than in melodramatic movies and sometimes, I tend to get more emotional towards fictional characters than the real world. But there’s nothing to get embarrassed about, we all share that feeling somewhere. So let’s try to accept our wonderful weirdness and know that all of us share a virtual world that connects each one of us!

Thank you for taken the effort to read the entire blog. I'm sure there is at least one character you can relate to! Then go ahead, participate in the poll going on! Also, Feedback and comments are most welcomed. :)