The Need To Be Mainstream

India is a strange country. Nearly a billion people and yet one thing everyone yearns for is acceptance. The need is now an obsession. More and more people are following this trend of buttering up to popular opinion and the results are hilarious.

I have a friend who I would like to describe. He is a normal 20 year old college student who likes to keep abreast of the happening things in college but lately he wants to pretend he enjoys all of it. Recently, he was introduced to the world of TV shows and voila he cannot stop talking about F.R.I.E.N.D.s. Overnight his topic of conversation revolves all around Joey and his nincompoops. He has seen the series 4 times over and claims to have laughed equally hard each and every time. The zany part is he doesn't get half the pop culture references and yet he laughs hard (probably at his own stupidity, who knows).

In a bid to be different a lot of Indian kids are into football. My friend too is so cool he doesn't watch cricket. Football all the way he says. Manchester United is his favourite team it seems so much so that in 2015 Cristiano Ronaldo is his favourite player and 'Manu' will win the cup this year as well. He boldly predicted that 2014 FIFA world cup would be won by Spain and once they were knocked out he supported Brazil till the 7-1 drubbing when he miraculously became a Deutscheland supporter. The ironic part is he couldn't name a single German player if his life depended on it.

Recently, he saw the Oscar's and he yapped about how Barney from How I Met Your Mother (American TV's up yours to Karan Johar and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai) was so awesome as a host though he seemed clueless throughout the Birdman parody. The other day I visited him and saw that he is downloading Birdman along with other Oscar nominated movies just like he does every year. This is not because he watches them it is just documentary evidence that he has them (not necessarily watches, BIG difference).

The Indian stand up scene was still pretty raw and unknown when I asked him to watch these hilarious YouTube videos and podcasts on Soundcloud which obviously fell on deaf ears. Then came the controversies and all of a sudden he was a big fan of comedy. The same was his sudden interest in house music which coincided with the arrival of Swedish House Mafia for a show in Mumbai. Another fun fact: he doesn't know the difference between EDM, house music and trance. Worse still he is now all geared up for the Ed Sheeran show in March. Now what genre would that be in his mind. (Metal probably!)

I could probably go on and on and on about him but the problem is not him. The problem is that there are many like him. All the things I spoke of existed for a long time before he chose to be a big fan of them which he was oblivious to but the moment he realised the social benefits attached to following or claiming to be a fan of all the above things he toed the line. There is no independent thought process involved in it. For all you know he doesn't enjoy some of it yet he prefers to 'smile and wave' so that he is not left out. It hinders one's ability to make decisions and judge on his own. All you get is a flock of brainless, ignorant sheep who will soon or later fall prey to herd mentality. He is the guy who plays puff-puff-pass just to fit in and then realise he is addicted to smoking.

I wonder what is next for him. Anurag Kashyap movies I suppose.