The shows that changed my life.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S


Nothing has ever been quite the same again. I was at University when the six of them tentatively reached out to me and made friends with me. Now I am ten years older and they have left, but their impact on my life in undeniable. I changed my schedule, my hairstyle, my sense of humour and even the colour of my walls to match theirs, seen them fall in and out of love, attended weddings, funerals and childbirths. Meet my F.R.I.E.N.D.S – Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), Rachael Green (Jennifer Anniston), Monica Geller (Courtney Cox Arquette), Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), Joey Tribianni (Matt Le Blanc) and Ross Geller (David Schwimmer). I was in India at the time and would leave parties early or arrive late to be in time to catch the sextet in action. The show changed how I viewed friendship. It wasn’t just about finding people on the same wavelength as oneself but also about accepting friends for who they are and not trying to change that. On the other hand it was all about evolution not just of the characters but also of relationships they shared. Like the time when Monica tells Chandler, that she wouldn’t go out with him if her were the last guy on earth and ends up marrying him and having a family with him a couple of years later. To me that was a powerful message about how life comes a full circle and you do get all that you deserve.

Oprah

There hasn’t been much that hasn’t been said about this pint-sized girl from Mississippi, she undergone a tremendous change in pretty much every aspect of her life since the first episode of Oprah beamed into our living rooms and the rest, as they say, is history. I don’t remember the first time I watched Oprah, simply because I don’t remember the time before her. Her historic shows on child molestation, sexual abuse, domestic violence, feminism have literally shaped my views. These important but controversial and sensitive topics are swept under the proverbial carpet in almost all cultures. The Oprah Winfrey Show was like the first ray of light into my ignorant mind. I also realised how hard it must have been for her before she started Harpo because as a rookie radio jockey hosting a women’s show hard as I may have tried, commercialisation didn’t allow me to hitch my ride on the Oprah bandwagon and let taboo be taboo. But once the fire in the heart was ignited with the advent of Oprah on telly in India, the change in the mindset of the generation next was palpable.

Will & Grace
Coming out of the closet was considered a big deal in India, where gay is never seen as gay really is – it is associated more with the eunuchs (plenty of which are found dancing on the traffic lights to make a living). The fact that a man can love men; function rationally and responsibly, sometimes in the higher echelons of the boardroom fraternity, was an alien concept. One day while waiting for F.R.I.E.N.D.S to air I caught an early episode of Will & Grace on a relatively new channel called Zee English. My constricted mindset couldn’t figure out the dynamics of the relationship between Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Messing). Single, attractive, subliminally role-playing best friends had me confused. Not helping matters was the generous helping of Mr. Jazz hands, Jack (Sean Hayes) who is one of Will’s best friends and Karen (Megan Mullally) a rich socialite who plays Grace’s assistant. Will and Grace, with it’s brilliantly written dialogues and funny one liners had me hooked and lead the path into my discovery of the gay world. A superb cast, well defined performances and the crazy working dynamics of the quartet which play racquet ball in deciding which relationship, Jack and Karen or Will and Grace, takes the craziness quotient higher and is the focal point that keeps the show fresh. So in the words of my good friend, Just Jack (also known as Just Jack 2001), “Let’s get this GAY, Will & Grace, in a monumental insight into the gay world but the queerness of the straight world as well.”