If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or email alerts. Thanks for visiting!
Does anything ever remind you of your glorious childhood? If crushed crushes and delirious and often fluctuating obsessions with varied interests can be called glorious, then yeah sure I had a glorious childhood too. What took me back to such blurry yet enjoyable memories of my brief life? As I prepared to step out today morning, Kevin Arnold called out from the little tube. I am not sure if you watched the Kevin Arnold chronicles so aptly titled “The Wonder Years” on Star Plus before Ekta Kapoor totally ruined the Star experience (at least for me).
I literally swore by this real-life drama depicting the internal struggles of growing up in a stereotypical suburban American home, complete with school and girlfriend problems. Although it was set in the 60s and early 70s and definitely depicted a different culture from my own, I could relate to Kevin’s life almost entirely. Maybe it was the format i.e. his mind speaking in contrast to his spoken words and actions that made it so realistic. His childhood molded by a nuclear family, replete with overbearing unwanted visiting relatives weirdly represented my own. Every time I heard the John Lennon-inspired Joe Crocker crooning of “With a little help from my friends” gave me goose bumps. His geeky best friend Paul and his girlfriend Winnie embroiled in their own struggle in coming to terms with life form the perfect foil with Kevin’s often unsuccessful grappling. Be it infatuation with your fifth grade teacher or death of a close friend, nothing is ever insignificant in this stage of life. “My life is torn apart between love and death” makes you laugh at his misplaced priorities yet make you think whether kids are expected to deal with death the way adults do. I literally watched him become an adult the way I would, grappling with regular issues of life exaggerated with mischievous workings of the mind. He was the regular Joe, having normal growing up issues like acne, peer pressure, sibling rivalry, infatuating crushes, girl issues, parent problems, sentimental attachment to material things…rather on second thoughts, he wasn’t a regular Joe. He was me.
The cocooning of childhood, obsessed with girls and dad dominance suddenly exploding with Vietnamization of his world gives Kevin a rude shock as he reevaluates his priorities. The world that he always perceived as simple suddenly explodes into a myriad web of complexities and uncertainty. The presence of an overarching force somehow shatters your myth that everything in the world is fair and fine. But then you make the best of it and just move on; your life is just like everyone else and you are unique just like everyone. Someone told me that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans for life. God must have had a hearty laugh at my expense but then his plans for me weren’t as bad. Everyone is a Kevin in his or her own right. Heck, my life is a perfect drama…rather it’s a dysfunctional sitcom. Move over, Osbornes…I have my own reality show right here, playing 24/7, never mind the TRPs though.
by Patrix | on Sunday, October 5th, 2003 at 2:18 pm | 
Personal, Television . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
