I am running away from reality, as fast as i could.
and trying not to look back, so as to prevent my eye from tearing.
Awkward conversations
Monday, August 10, 2009
Last month I was at Aki's place and I saw her father watching True Blood. I snickered and went to her room. She was lounging in her room which is as clean as mine (this is sarcasm people, in case you actually think that my room is well organized. Its organization lies in its chaos. Ordo ab chao you know :-)) and was reading something.
Me: Did you know that your dad has taken to watching True Blood? Her: What is True Blood? I looked mildly scandalized. I have watched this series starting last autumn online and I have been hemming and hawing about it for a while. I think I even wrote something on my other blog - the decent one. Me: HBO original series. Its nice one. Anna Paquin won a Golden Globe for her performance. Her: What about my dad watching it? If its Golden Globe material, the it must surely be good, no? Me: Do you believe that every person who get a promotion actually deserve it? Her: Good point. Me: Well, the series is really, really good; once you get past all the nudity and sex scenes. Her: You are kidding me. Me: Nah. I think HBO India would have toned out a lot but I am really not sure. Her: I would love to see my dad's reaction watching that and with us in the same room. Really, that girl is evil.
I agree with her completely the awkwardness that would be so thick in the room whenever there is an intimate scene on TV (that includes kissing too!) and if my parents and I are watching TV, then the excuses that they make to switch channel or start a random conversation is hilarious. Really. They think I am still in my diapers or they are way too embarrassed about something that is not a part of our culture. Yet. My parents love to watch movies online rather than waiting for couple of months to catch it in theaters. But they felt awkward to see the movie with obvious ads from porn sites. I think that was the driving force for me to become so good in scripting language. I installed Grease Monkey on FireFox and started customizing the sites so that all expected porn content could be filtered. I just instructed my parents to open websites which I recommended only in Firefox and on my laptop only. All was calm for few months and my parents watched every documentary they could get their hands on and watched latest English and Hindi movies almost every other day. In the mean time my uncle, who is my father's eldest brother went to LA to visit his son and from there he raved about high speed internet. My father didn't want to burst his bubble by saying that if you pay a little more, you get something similar in India too. So my father emailed my uncle few web links from where my uncle and aunt could watch movies. (I think my entire family is addicted to movies!) Twenty minutes later he gives my dad a call and is admonishing him for watching porn at his age. My cousins and I were laughing to a point that my dad sulked for few days. I emailed my cousin my grease monkey script. Thankfully he is a programmer himself so it took him only few moments to set it up. I asked my mom what was so big deal about porn anyway? Her eyes were as wide as saucers and she started hyperventilating. Really, mom. "Have you watched it?" She squeaked. "Sure I did, it gets kind of redundant after the first time you see." She thought for a moment I was joking. I wasn't. "Why did you watch it?" She was looking at me as if I have commited a crime. "I wanted to see what the fuss was all about." Honestly, that was the only reason. My stupid curious mind. "And? What do you think?" She really wanted to know. "I think they are better than most of reality shows you watch or movies of your stuttering hero." I don't understand my mom. She loves Gibran's work and at the same time likes the lamest movies. I don't get it at all. She looked scandalized at my words, of course. I just shrugged.
"Have you watched it again?" I was slowly losing patience. "It was a one time thing. Just like the time when I read two Mills & Boons books and gave it up being redundant." She visibly relaxed. "Of course, if someone recommends a good one, I would watch it again." I bared my teeth. My mom stomped her feet and left me alone. Really, mom!