The gen X celebrities

There is an old saying in Marathi which goes – a student should get the better of his teacher and a son, of his father. Going by the real time trends aired on one of those “real” TV shows, this saying has truly become old. Behold all you teachers and fathers out there, the generation X celebrities have arrived to compete, and in style. (On an entirely different note, I always thought news IS the REAL TV, until I came across one of those locked in a house shows).

The headlines is the marriage of the protagonist of a reality show, who chose his bride from among a whooping (hold your breath) 16,000+ contestants. Forget the teachers and the fathers; this is like even giving the Lord, a run for his popularity. For the benefit of those who are cut off from these “real” world shows (I too have arrived late, enriched my knowledge of these shows only today!), the celebrity protagonist in these shows chooses his/her bride/bridegroom from among thousands of suitors and the entire event from interview till marriage is aired on the TV. To all my bachelor and bachelorette friends who are desperately seeking out, here is your answer; become a celebrity and you are married overnight! I am still thinking of the real meaning of a celebrity though. Movie stars, Drug addicts, politicians, sports persons are all celebrities. The 60 year old who hits the gym to bash up 15 goons and romance a 25 year old is a celebrity, and so is the 25 year old who hit’s the gym to turn into size zero. You just have to think of a way to become a celebrity and then get into a reality TV show. It’s a gold class ticket to stardom thereafter!! Another advantage of being a celebrity or act in a reality TV show is the awards that follow. Anybody who is somebody is awarded these days. Awards which our previous generations could only dream of are given away like store coupons. Going through the profile of the awardees will many a times makes you wonder if they were even worth a nomination. These are the same awards which our previous generations could never make it to or even if they received, it would have been decades after they died. The current generation seems to have an upper hand here and is setting a new bench mark for the next. They are receiving the awards while still young and importantly when many of them don’t even know why they received it. Discovery and innovation is the key. If you are a celebrities’ son or daughter, you just need to be discovered and if you are not a celebrities’ son or daughter, you have to invent a way to become a celebrity.

Talking of discoveries and inventions I wonder how our deserving scientists and researchers feel when they see awards being given to these reality show celebrities. Nobody anyway seems to bother how star fishes navigate on the ocean floor, or about the huge black hole in a far away galaxy. Our scientists and researchers are rarely featured in the newspapers and their existence in the movies and TV shows so far has been mostly limited to one of those weird looking, long haired, absent minded characters. Maybe they should start thinking of ways to become an overnight celebrity. Something like developing a pill which will make a male always smell like cologne, or a lady to never ever bother wearing lipstick as her lip color changes to suit her dress.

By the way, did I mention? If 74 Kg for a male becomes the new “Weight Zero”, even I am a celebrity!!!


~Narendra V Joshi