The TV Scares Me Away From Marriage!

13 B can boast of a scary TV. But aren’t our TVs even more scary!?

I must confess that I rarely watch television. My one stop for entertainment is  my computer that provides everything – from international music albums to the hottest news. So I never really believed the stories in the newspaper about the falling standards of television serials. That is until I started watching it last week, when I was bored of sitting at home during the preparation holidays.

So during lunch one day, I switched on the TV, not knowing what to expect from it. I was hoping to catch some Bollywood music show or maybe a comedy serial. But what came on as the idiot box started was a woman weeping profusely beside a man (, who was her husband, as I discovered later on) lying on a hospital bed seriously injured. Oh poor couple I thought. Then came the scary part – The husband’s sister-in-law (brother’s wife) wanted him dead! In fact, he was lying on a hospital bed because of his sister-in-law! She had hired some goons to run a truck over his car! 

“Why would she do that?” I wondered out aloud.

“Oh then the entire property would be on her husband’s name and she will enjoy. You see the head of the family is also on his deathbed and so this woman is planning for her bright future.” came my “little” brother’s explanation. Apparently he is a regular viewer of the show.

Wow! That is incredibly easy!

Anyway, that serial ended and on came the next one called Aye Dil-e-Nadan. Surprisingly, this looked very much like the previous one. Again there are two daughter-in-laws. One is a picture of peace, serenity, and all good things and the other is a dark character, so jealous of her sister-in-law that she prays (yes she actually starts every curse with a “Matarani Ki Saut“!) for the death of her sister-in-law’s yet-to-be-born baby, only because the mother-in-law gifts the other daughter-in-law a set of gold jewellery. Of course her neck already looks like one of those used in jewellery shops. Still, she wanted that particular necklace!

I would have switched channels, if I had a cable connection. As it is, I have only DD National (yes, I live in the dark ages), so I just had to wait patiently for the next one – Kashmakash Zindagi Ki.

Sudha Chandran as Rajya Lakshmi Mausi

It was episode 500+. Whoa! Anyway, Kashmakash again was same as the other two in that it had a big, powerful and rich household fraught with problems. A member is battling for life in the hospital, another member is in jail for murder, another has a husband who is involved with another woman. And at the center of it all is a woman called Rajyalakshmi Mausi (played by Sudha Chandran), the vicious vamp. She does not have just one enemy. Everyone, just about everyone is her enemy. She is jealous, she is vicious, she is sly. She uses people to her own means and then discards them afterwards just like a straw is discarded after drinking! She is out to destroy the whole family and get the property for herself. She is a brilliant schemer, planning rifts among the members of the household. And her clothes! It looks like she’s at a wedding, with every imaginable ornament on her being – from nose rings, jhumkas, 10 finger-rings, innumerable heavy and solid necklaces, to a big, shiny, gold bindi on her forehead!

Wow! Does being rich buy you so many problems, from hospital to jail? And does getting married really spawn so much jealousy among the family members? Will my wife start cursing my brother’s wife? Will my brother’s wife wish for my death? 

Of course, I did find out that there is one show on DD National that features Bollywood songs, named Rangoli. However, this is scheduled for 7:30 AM on Sunday! Now I wonder who wakes up at 7:30 AM on a Sunday morning to watch a show that shows long-forgotten (unknown to me) songs! So conveniently, I have crossed Rangoli out of my viewing list. The talent shows on DD National are deplorable.

Oh and for people whose curiosity has been aroused enough to watch these shows, Kashmakash Zindagi Ki starts at 2:30 PM and Aye Dil-e-Nadan at 2:00 PM.

Anyway, I have to go now. It is time for Kashmakash Zindagi Ki and I have been eagerly waiting to see how Rajyalakshmi Mausi plans to destroy another relationship. I love her evil mind!