People!

Bloating – check
Crazy ass mood swings – check
Irritability – check
Snappiness – check
Murderous tendencies – check
Hormones hitting the wall of my head like electrons in a nuclear reactor during fission – check
Random desire to cry without provocation & for no reason at all – check
Wanting something & not wanting it at the same time – check

Any guesses what game we’re playing?
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Oh well, let it be.

Let’s talk about ‘Sach Ka Saamna’ (the Indian adaptation of ‘The Moment of Truth’). Not about whether the show should be aired at all on TV, how it’s ruining the moral fibre of the 'great moralistic nation called India’, how it’s turning us all into voyeurs & all that baloney. To read what I feel about such issues, please go here.

I want to talk about the psyche of the people who come on the show.

They participate willingly. They definitely don’t look destitute to me, even if I discount all that bling on their clothes and overdone make-up. They are regular middle class people who reveal their most sordid, intimate secrets to the television channel so the dirt can be splashed on their faces in front of their spouse & family (who are hit the worst), their extended family & friends who must be watching them on TV, and an entire nation full of conservative, judgmental people!! Going by the confessions the contestants make, I’m sure they pretty much wreck their lives.

Of course, they come for the money though they claim they come because they want to confess to their spouse/family, unburden themselves of guilt by facing the truth head-on etc. If you really wish to confess, you can do it within the confines of your bedroom just as well. You need not do so on national television. They come for the money alright but sadly, most of them don’t even go back with an awful lot of it. The lie detector trips them & they usually go back with a few lacs at most. I really don’t understand why anyone would wreck their lives for a few lacs of rupees.

Oh well…it takes all kinds, I guess. There is no dearth of amusement in this world, people being the biggest of it all. My brother-in-law’s reaction to the show hit home. He said, “I never realized ordinary people have such extraordinary lives!”

I didn’t either.

PS: I couldn't think of a better title for this post. We're all people, you know. 'You' are people, 'I' am people, so are the 'people' who go on that show...they are people too. Even animals are people. I mean, they are animals but they have feelings too...so I guess that makes them people too, no? And what about plants? Are they 'people' too? You know how they say that plants too feel happy & sad...they sway when they feel happy? Or was that something only my crazy grandparents said? That sounds like something Luna Lovegood would say! She's people too! See...people again! There are people everywhere. There are so many people in this world! You can't even get a house at a reasonable rent these days because of so many goddamn people, all of whom want to live in houses! And people do weird things. And they feel strange, especially when the hormones are jacked up. People are jumping around in my head right now! And I'll stop before my head explodes!!!!!