# Cheap Thrills

 Dear God 

Sample this:

Scene 1 : A woman about to get engaged, a punjabi sad song playing in the background and suddenly the dame in question runs to the open arms of her ex standing right in front of her. 

Scene 2: A jethani with questionable motives and epic planning wishes to prevent her devrani from taking an exam (!).

Scene 3: A reality show where the judges are jumping like circus clowns doing antics well beneath their stature and dignity to show how the performances are extraordinary and never seen before. 

So much for creative direction... gone are the legendary shows like Swabhimaan and Shanti which gave us goosebumps with their plot twists. Gone are the technically sound Sa re ga ma and Boogie Woogie. Today's plot twists range from unplanned marriages to second marriages to forced marriages to bitter marriages to fake marriages...basically marriages. What are we trying to portray on prime time TV? ..That women are objects which can be bartered, exchanged, sold, manipulated or if all else fails sacrificed in the name of family honor. These are not the realities I want to see..these are not the values that should be visualized. Also the stereotypical career oriented modern woman with the heavy makeup and the arched eyebrows who just wants to snatch the man in question or get ahead in her career at the cost of her dignity and ethics?

Is it just me who slogged my a** off for years to get this job and worked day and night to secure a promotion? Why didn't I do it the way that is being slowly normalized by showing it on Prime Time TV? Snatch someone's influential husband and manipulate my way to the top! You know why? Because it is not normal. In the real world, career women also are full time mothers and they do full justice to their responsibilities. In the real world, women are proving their mettle at challenging and difficult jobs and get to go home to their monogamous husbands. In the real world, we don't have unhappy twisted marriages for all the wrong reasons. 

The real world is so different from these fake universes where everything just revolves around the kitchen. Actually it does not. Real life is filled of happy experiences and much love. There are some setbacks and difficulties that are part of life but I assure you, most of them do not revolve around snatching husbands, scheming in kitchens or manipulating simpletons into forced marriages. 

PS: The online content is so much better btw.