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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Magic of Serials


American kids eat most what they call cereals. The Americans also produce some extra ordinary serials. Now I have become a keen watcher of serials. Can you take one guess how many serials I watch?
24!
Yes! I watch 24 serials. Generally all these serials are weekly affairs. (I do hope they don’t have the chewing gum daily soaps. Or do they have?) Well, my watching is restricted to weekly serials.
I watch a variety. Real variety at that. Suspense thrillers, comedy thrillers, comedies, revenge stories, helping hand lending thieves’ stories, etc., etc.,
It has become my weakness, Usha, my better half says! But no! I know the truth. You see, I was not able to write anything all these years. Almost 3650 days!
So, let me tell you a secret! I was looking for some ‘inspiration’ from these serials!
They say if you make 17 changes in a published work and declare it as your own, nobody can question, I believe!
Well, seriously I do not want to get ‘inspired’ by any of the serials.
But they do have interesting story lines.
Take for example 24.
Yes, the serial is called 24. It runs for 24 episodes. Each episode is an hour in a day. The story starts on an hour on a particular day and ends exactly at the closure of 24 hours.
I had no inkling about such a serial’s existence until my brother in law came from the US of A. His son,  then may be 13, was wanting a dvd having this serial.
When my son also watched it in awe, I, out of curiosity watched it.
Wow! Amazing serial!!
A man, Jack Bauer, goes to any level (stoops as well) to save his country and his family. You have to see to believe it.
The serial has many heart stopping moments.  Twists and turns galore. Human element, emotions notwithstanding.
Unbelievable! Yes, when I heard in another serial the heroine saying to the hero, Castle, this is not 24, this is for real, I could not help laughing!
Incidentally this heroine has acted in 3 episodes of this mammoth serial, in the fifth season.
Yes, the incidents are unbelievable, but it captures you.
It has one wildly important goal, say, a nuclear bomb about to be detonated,  an epidemic disease about to burst, the Presidential candidate about to be assassinated etc., etc., Balance is how the situations twist and turn and how the characters react to it.
In fact, the latest 8th season had our own actor Anil Kapoor as one of the most important characters after Jack Bauer.
24 X 8 = 192… alas, the serial has stopped. Of course, there was a 2 hour movie as a prelim to the 7th season.
I watched all seasons many times. Funny, still the adrenaline level goes up every time I watch the serial. I know what will happen next. But still, it has the thrill, heart stopping moments.
Usha complains that I don’t write because I am more interested in watching TV serials than writing. I have to prove her wrong.
The first step is, this! I have started writing.
Newton’s first law of motion – A body continues to be at rest, until an external force pushes it!
Yes, I have been ‘pushed’ to write.
Hopefully the reader of this blog will get some chills and thrills shortly.
Of course, my own writing. No lifting! Well, at least I try not toJ

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