We always fantasise about being someone
else. This desire is what gives birth to our creativity. Look at things that we
create and consume in the name of entertainment/information or more apt, Infotainment - gossip, stories, comics, movies,
paintings, photography, TV serials, reality shows, Movie star gossip shows,
social networking,...all of them share a common thread- they tell about someone’s
experiences.
The Far Ones:
These people may be real (news,
reality show, biographies) or imaginary (fiction)... past (history) or future
(Sci-fi)... good (Superman), bad (bad man) or plainly ugly (शक्ति-मैन ) or even our own past(nostalgia) or future self(day-dreaming). The experiences may be trivial (gossip, social
networking) or world changing (natural calamities, wars)... real (20-20)
or unreal (गुंडा); all of us have our own set of favourites. We
enjoy them, because we enjoy imagining ourselves to be in the shoes of that person, that James Bond, that कृष्ण, that कर्ण, that Federer, that sachin.
The Near Ones:
This is not limited to only famous
and public figures, it holds equally true about ‘normal’ people around us too;
we want to know as much as possible about what’s going on in the lives of our family,
friends, colleagues and neighbours. We want to be as close as possible to being
them. Hence the guilty pleasure in voyeurism, idle gossip, the gtalk and the
social media.
The Deplored Ones:
I always used to wonder, why do
we create and consume horror, gore and tragedies? The feelings they invoke (fear,
nausea and depression) are not exactly desired, what we love is not the feeling
they invoke; but consuming that experience, of being that guy frantically
running away from some slasher, being hung from tree and roasted alive, being Devdas
and drowning life in the bottle (well, this on not exactly depressing :P, but you
get the point)
The Revered One:
That’s probably why the highest entity we have
devised for our own little world- The God is epitome of this collective fantasy,
the one who sees everything and knows everything, in other words, one who lives
through everybody and everything.
