Showing posts with label Grey's Anatomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grey's Anatomy. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Baby Steps

Concerns and desires
Dreams and ideas
Frustration and anger
Demand a better world


Where conversations don’t stutter and halt
Where friends don’t need to think twice
Where loved ones don’t move away
Where relationships don’t fray due to pride


Where friends don't lose touch
Where out of sight doesn't mean out of mind
Where love doesn't wear thin
Where people don't get left behind


Where plane tickets don’t cost so much
Where just once in four months is not the way
Where seeing someone after a year
Is just the same as after a day


Where a woman can drive late at night
And not be questioned or threatened
Where her character isn’t judged so easily
Where expectations don’t suffocate dreams


Where fat is just a word
Where straight doesn’t win over curly
Where Pepé is the same as Calvin Klein
Where pink doesn’t mean girly


Where short dresses and formal shirts come in my size
Where three neat shots don't make me puke
Where cigarettes don't kill
Where parents don't disapprove


Where my mind is clear and sure
Not so jumbled and confused
Where clarity and confidence
Replace cruel doubt and insecurity


Where libraries are huge and near
Where bookshops serve free coffee
Where there’s always time for reading a book
Where writing well is easy


Where Patrick Dempsey lives across the street
Where Grey’s Anatomy just doesn’t end
Where laziness is not so tempting
Where chocolate isn’t unhealthy


Baby steps towards a better world

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Dark Side of Grey's Anatomy

Before I reached my rebellious, I'll-do-what-I-want phase, I had to follow the rules that were implemented at home. There weren't too many of them.. just some general curfew rules, and some about studies. I didn't have a problem with most of the rules. But the one rule I remember that irked me was the 'No-TV-on-weekdays' rule.

My father was always the anti-TV person at home. He believed that TV was a waste of time, especially for kids. He wanted my sister and me to do something "constructive" with our free time. He always told us to get out of the house, play something, try something new, do anything other than spending an hour in front of the TV. (He still says that, actually). And that was the time when IIT had just gotten many new channels on cable... Cartoon Network and Disney Channel were the new "thing" amongst the kids. And so, that 'No-TV-on-weekdays' rule really irked.

Then, when I grew past the age of having to follow the rules, I entered an obsessive TV-watching phase. I discovered the wonderful, wonderful world of downloaded episodes, fell in love with Patrick Dempsey and spent most of my after-class-10th vacations making my father hover on the brink of shouting at me by obsessively downloading and watching the entire series of Grey's Anatomy, among other shows. College in Singapore put a halt to my excessive downloading, but then the online streaming of Will and Grace and Two and A Half Men started.

After years of all this, I have, of course, realised that the world of TV-watching isn't as harmless as I had claimed when I argued with my father about his rules. I don't know whether all the violence on TV influences teenagers or not, or whether the "Western beliefs" showed on TV are infiltrating and corrupting my "Indian culture". I do, however, know that these TV shows can be highly depressing.

I don't generally wish that I had a guy as perfect as Derek Shepherd from Grey's Anatomy in my life, or go "Awwww...." when Derek and Meredith's legendary love overcomes all obstacles (such as Derek being married) in the show. It's not the love stories that make me jealous or melancholy. It's all the drama in TV series that I find depressing. I find myself wishing that my life had some of the constant drama that exists in Tree Hill or Seattle Grace Hospital. I want my life to be more interesting. I want something, anything, to happen!

That's why I think watching so much TV is bad for me. Not because it wastes a lot of time that would be better spent doing the work I have piled up, or because it gets me very involved in the lives of people that don't exist, but because the hectic and dramatic lives of those non-existent people makes me feel bored and unsatisfied with my own normal life.