A little drama is required

Being an Indian, I can totally bet that you can just never get enough of drama. You may hate it yet you can’t escape it. I think that we are wired in a way that from time to time, we do need to refill our drama quotient. Of course it takes different amount of time for different persons for the drama quotient to get empty. Someone’s drama quotient may last for one month while someone else’s may last just a week.

Don’t get me wrong here. I am not saying that Indians do not appreciate good cinema. On the contrary, drama is probably the least appreciated genre of cinematic content in this country. This has been around for so long that it is now being taken for granted. With the advent of international media and exposure to other genres, the significance of drama has further subdued. Yet, I firmly believe that it will never be extinct.

I know of someone who really enjoys Game of Thrones. He is a huge fan of Batman. He has watched every episode of Supernatural. He watches every super hero movie. He is a fan to an extent that he even speaks the dialogues in usual conversation. Yet when the movie Bajrangi Bhaijaan came out, his status read something like – Hum toh aapki dabangiyat ke deewane the yeh toh aap Bajrangi Bhaijaan banke aur bhi zyada fan kar gaye – loosely translated to that we were fan of your Dabangg image and you made us a fan with Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

Then I don’t know a single girl who hasn’t seen one of the drama shows. All mothers and the previous generations have seen Balaji production shows. Even the girls – I don’t think there is any who has not seen any. Countless shows like Geet, Miley Jab Hum Tum, Dil Mil Gaye and many more started as being of a different genre but they contained tons of drama and got even bigger viewership. Well you may argue that these shows didn’t contain the saas-bahu drama but hey, drama is drama in any form or relationship.

There is also a quick test for this – see any show or movie which is currently showing a romantic or wedding sequence. Even though such scene seldom not contain drama correlated, if you get a girl to watch it for a couple of seconds, she is most likely to sit through the entire run. And not just girls, I know a lot of guys will respond in the same manner to this test.

I realized this when suddenly I had this urge to see a Karan Johar movie one day. I have all marvel movies in my cellphone along with FRIENDS series. I was already seeing some more things and then just out of the blue, I wanted to see a typical Bollywood movie. The first movie that came to my mind was Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. It is a great movie. The songs are pretty awesome. However, you can’t deny that there are some real basic issues with the movie. AB being so rigid. AB was a billionaire and his wife needed permission to do everything. Rahul never realized that Naina loved him. Well these are the ones pointed from the first couple of minutes of the movie. Also drama is not my favourite genre. I love comedies and there are a lot of them that I keep seeing endlessly. Yet, I know the dialogues of this movie. And that day I had this intense urge to see it – just to refill my quota.

I am not saying it is a good or a bad thing. I am just saying that we all are brought up amongst all this. Family stories and family values are something that are quite natural to all of us. We may not love that but we can’t deny it being a part of us.

Probably that is why I take some moments off my sleep and do things like writing this blog and then tell it in the office tomorrow for the reason for my sleep deprived state – for – thoda drama toh banta hai boss!

Guys and their hair

I love my hair. For the love of God and Satan combined, I do. I don’t care if I don’t wash my face one day but I care deeply if something happens to even one strand on my head. I like them long and strong. Of course it means that I try a lot of oils and shampoos. Sometimes, actually most times, it doesn’t help. But then again often I wonder what would I do with my long hair? As in currently I do have sufficiently long hair but every time I wash them, I don’t have any option but to keep them open or to tie a braid. Those are the times when I really wonder if I would like my hair short.

This thought came to my mind thanks to my Gym Instructor. He has normal boy cut hair but every day he keeps on doing something to them. Sometimes he will gel them up to become square shaped. Other days he supports a slanted-hill or what I prefer – a Johnny Bravo look. Sometimes he will cut his hair real short from the sides and let them be as it is. Other times he will keep asking how his hairstyle is and I have totally no clue what is different. I do agree that the way he keeps his hair makes a lot of difference to his overall appearance. Some days he looks quite young and not so young on the others. Yet I have seen his devotion to keep his hair in the perfect style throughout the day. When I need to defend my laziness, I would say that his hair is shorter so he can do it. However ever since I have noticed him, I started noticing guys in general fussing over their hair.

One day I was going to my office in the office bus and I see this car at the signal. There is a little traffic and there is a little guy and probably his father in the car. The child is dressed in school dress. He is so calm and composed. He has no issues with the traffic or concerns of getting late for his school. He was busy setting his hair. I am not even sure if we had mirrors in my school but certainly times have changed since I have left school.

Speaking on the same note, my office bus driver – well, sometimes he is fresh, sometimes he is talking on phone, sometimes he is listening to music and other times he is wearing chappals, supporting a just-out-of-bed look. Still he makes sure that no matter what, his hair is always perfect. I have never seen his hair look any different or out of place. His hair is always the same length and always set the same way.

An even more striking incident happened when I was at a wedding. The groom’s family had arrived and the girl’s younger brother and sister were ushering them into the hall. There was this crazy loud music and dancing. The welcoming rituals were just done and now the groom was walking into the main hall towards the stage. The bride’s siblings are walking behind him. The groom’s side people are dancing. Amidst all this, the bride’s younger brother is dancing and then stops, set his hair and then dances again. Not even sure why but this is what I saw.

Now when I see guys setting their hair, I cant help but laugh a little. At the same time I am still unsure what do I do with my own hair.