When inanity overpowers reality

Though boundless freedom is an advantage that tags along with life in hostels, when it comes to certain luxuries that we enjoy limitlessly at home, hostel life cuts down those advantages and makes us long for the relaxed bygone days. While scrumptious food is at the forefront on the list, a close second is the joy of watching the favourite shows on television. Some hostels continue to linger in the pre-television era, while some others have just one television for all. Having a common television is not a boon that one has to thank the luck stars for, as there would always be a significant gang of regular viewers everywhere, who would hold the monopoly of deciding what to watch and when, while the others are either forced to agree to the common preference or find an alternative mode of entertainment. Falling in with the common choices can often freak one out, as the options always get narrowed down to the annoying, overrated, and overly dramatic daily ‘saas-bahu’ soaps that are hardly worth watching, but have managed to congregate a large set of audience. They are the longest-running addictions that many are afraid to admit. Finding religious viewers sitting transfixed in front of the television, mesmerised in the spell of such stereotypical dramatic stories often remind one of substance addicts who walk away from reality and embraces the string of hallucinations that they believe can induce happiness and pleasure. Frazzling us further, a few others who miss the daily episodes hurry desperately to read the weekend episodes. Their desperation is quite identical to finding one struggling with withdrawal symptoms and looking for a dose of drug to compose oneself.

Hopelessly confused between reality and fiction, these soap addicts find obsession in a supposedly harmless entertainment, but often turn chaotic if they miss an episode. Finding some of them watch the bygone episodes again and again on YouTube, and later discussion about them excitingly often unveils the extending and overflowing influence of these less than half-an-hour shows. Though most people would hesitate considering daily soap addiction as a growing menace, this strange obsession is more dangerous as getting addicted to cigarettes, drugs, and lotteries. The more one gets, the more quenchable the craving would be.


More often than not, the indefinitely-stretching soap operas are the secret guilty pleasure of both men and women in our country. They leave no stones unturned to strain the precious brain cells of many with ridiculously similar plots that are laced with monotonous stories of mind-numbing gossips, vicious feuds, cat-fights, murders, unrealistic romances, nauseating infidelities, illegitimate children, deceptions, and irksome tantrums of alcoholics who portray either as troublesome husbands or pestering dads, brothers, uncles, and so on. Yet, for all the grimness that they serve each day, these daily doses of good-for-nothing narratives are the life-and-blood of many people, who keep themselves glued to television to watch their favourite characters heave from one dilemma and crisis to the other. Not even a single day goes without finding women befooling themselves with their frantic rush to get back to watch the evening shows, watching them carefully organize their lives based on timings of their favourite serials or avoiding interactions when the shows are on air. These deadly concoctions of mindlessness, enriched with forever-decked-up daughters in law and perpetually scheming mother-in-laws, never conclude on one storyline, but transform to newer ones every time, making sure to retain the obsession of regular viewers. Though the storylines are crafted with just minor variations, Indian daily soaps have one essentiality in common, and that’s the ideal daughter in law who recites her regular morning prayers, cooks several dishes a day with incessant smile, does all the household chores, face every deceitfulness like a superwoman, and yet look energetic, happy and smart, fully clad in zardosi sarees and heavy jewellery, holding the entire family together like a superglue, and giving her well known competitors like Fevicol and the like a run for their money.

Finding them cultivate an aura of troubling thoughts is one of the most distressing outcomes of daily soap addiction. Watching a disgruntling mother-in-law plotting to kill her innocent daughter-in-law who stupidly keeps falling prey to every possible scheme of hers is not a matter of contentment and relaxation; instead, it cripples the free flowing thoughts of many daily soap addicts who might take a cue from this much dangerous plan to vent out their anger on their daughters-in-law. Equally opposable is the sight of watching every other man in daily soaps sneaking out from their marital bliss to fall in love with their seductive secretaries and colleagues. Identifying with the characters of these far-from-reality storylines would definitely make women stalk or troll on their husbands and boyfriends in their ‘007 modi operandi’ to find the ‘other women’ in their partners’ lives. Being exposed to these daily dosages of endless scheming and plotting can transform even the most innocent souls into spiteful ones who might leave no stones unturned to do speak and do unto others without worrying about the repercussions.

As most of the shows get caught in their own rut with boring plots and non-twisty twist, leading to exits of several overly dressed up and decked up men and women, it’s amusing to find people engrossed in speculations about the future changes in plot or discussions on these changes in key characters. Soap opera fans who keep mulling over the possible alternative replacements need some strong therapies on sanity, to bring them back from the useless world of daily soaps that have nothing entertaining in them, but survive on constable dragged out plots that fill the airtime and the nearly vacuum minds of most of the viewers.

Very often, the daily soaps that start on the sweetest note often wrap up in the most unpredictable and unforeseen manners. While it’s might be assign of relief for many, the judgement day might trigger a sort of existential crisis among the significant majority of soap opera addicts, who need a whole lot of time or an equally dramatic show to heal the wound.

With sky-rocketing number of daily soap addicts, the day when our psychiatric wards branch out to kick-starting de-addiction centres psychotherapies to help get rid of daily soaps obsession is imminent.

Admire, don’t imitate

Her fuller lips continue to trend higher upwards even after enticing several teens who pouted their way to imitate her and got disfigured beyond repair. Does imitating somebody make one more beautiful? Precisely, what does one gain by trying the most unsafe way to ape a celebrity?

At the outset, I must unashamedly admit to be an ardent fan of Miranda Kerr and do read her tweets whenever possible. This in no way means that I am afflicted with the much disastrous celebrity worship or obsession with celebrities: neither do I believe in imitating them by any means, nor do I harm my body to emulate. But unfortunately, we have a startling number of youth in our society who suffer from the stead-fast desire of acquiring the looks of their favourite stars by hook-or-crook, irrespective of the immense levels of risks involved. While celebrities are beauty and style inspirations for many, they indirectly dictate the lives of several others who remain obsessed with public figures. These insensible fans often pick cringe-worthy means to ape their favourite stars. Apart from attires and hairstyles, there has been a wild-fire-like passion for cosmetics and artificial looks, an increasingly contagious trend that often extends to absolute nonsense levels, when brain-dead fans blindly line-up to transform themselves into some badly-made copies of their favourite stars. A worthless, hopeless, and dangerous pursuit to justify their delusional worship!

As celebrities apparently undergo their body and style transformations in the recommended manner; their fans often take the most harming routes to imitate their favourite stars. But how far can one go to mimic one’s favourite celebrity? From similar attires to fancy hairstyles, the options to try out are endless. However, the other day, I was shocked to read about a much dangerous, and unquestionably the utmost dumbest, act of a few teens who used shot glasses and bottles to artificially plump their lips and emulate a reality TV star. Simply put, it turned out to be a challenge gone bonkers! While the Ice Bucket Challenge had a genuine cause to mention, and hardly left anyone with permanent harm, much against the medical advices of numerous experts from all over the world, this newest and stupidest trend, or a dangerous stunt, went on irrespective of the stern warnings of possible permanent damages. It makes me wonder about the brain quotient of those who impulsively jump to try out something as stupid as the do-it-yourself lip pouting craze, which can lead to permanent disfigurements. Despite being aware of the medical impacts and the possible chances of getting the blood vessels burst, several brainless teens tried to emulate the lips of their favourite star by adopting utmost unnatural and unsafe methods, and ended up in having weird swellings on their lips, which in turn looked far from the much-talked-about lush-lips that they hoped to have. While the entire antic was named as a “challenge” that took the social media by storm, in their desperate effort to get the 'pouty' lips that resemble their favourite star, our teens didn't think twice to use thrust and suck empty bottles and glasses to plump their lips, and later share disturbing results on social media. More shocking news came in soon, and it read that some of them even used a vacuum sucker to make their lips 'pouty', which I feel is the height of silliness and insensibility. After continuing the entire catastrophe and ending up with bruised and swollen lips, most of them soon found that their pouts were oddly sized out of proportion, leaving several injuries around the mouth, and letting them mourn for the disfigurement and pain.

I am not a fan of bee-stung pout, nor do I believe in calling it a sign of enviable beauty. After watching the widely disturbing images on social media, I cannot help but pity the youngsters who were keen on injuring their lips to secure the ‘famous pout’ or ‘create’ the supposedly 'enviable' ‘fuller lips’. Irrespective of being aware that this seventeen-something celebrity might have gone under the knife, used lip-plumping devices/injections, or generously spent hours every day to create her pout, our supposedly educated teenagers risked to mimic her and suffered severe facial injuries, only to find a strange response from their star that she never forced anyone to participate. So the bottom line is, what exactly was all the risk-taking for, or what on earth did they gain by using glasses and vacuum suckers for the most dangerous cosmetic transformations ever heard of? Such ultimate steps to get uncanny resemblances and that help earn the tag of a close look-alike of a movie star or a TV celeb are to be considered akin to insaneness, and not adoration. Good looks are hardly about having celebrity-like skin colour, nose, or lips, but about having high self-esteem and self-confidence. However, there is an increasingly huge number of people around who are not comfortable in their own skin, and are desperate to alter it and emulate a TV or movie star.

Celebrity worship is a kind of addiction, and becomes potentially dangerous when the level of imitation extends beyond the contours of safety. Yet, many in the society often get fooled by the wrong facades of beauty. Cute or not, the mega mouth and the much-celebrated pout that has been trending for months can easily be created with ample use of lipsticks and lip liners. But, many teenagers didn't think twice to jump in and use unhealthy shortcuts to feverishly imitate their star, thus raising concerns over the upcoming generation of men and women who are preoccupied and fancied about celebrities and reality stars. Admiring the rich and the fabulous to a reasonable extend is in no way harmful, but an overgrowing affection as well as a blind and irrational admiration rings the warning sign that we are crossing the borderline, and should step back right away.

The entire billion-dollar industries of movies and television shows in fact revolve around our indefatigable obsession with celebs, which in a sensible amount can be a boost to our self-esteem. However, akin to this dangerous lip pouting stunt, the burning desire to resemble a celebrity might soon result in lowering the self-confidence, spurring terrible insecurity, thus ending up in a series of psychological disorders. If left unattended, the obsession would soon turn out to OCD and paranoia to adopt irreversible and invasive methods that might do unfathomable harm, instead of helping emulate the looks of a matinee idol or a TV star.

PS – Puckered lips can no way be called a yardstick to define one’s beauty. Try not to risk your body just to get a duck-like lips, which can hardly define your personality. They belong to someone else and not you!