Three bugs have hit me in the recent past (maybe since about 2 weeks, that is). Here they are in no particular order:

1) Fame Gurukul: I didn't think reality shows were so gripping actually. Saw only the last 2 week episodes of Indian Idol, cos, I was frowning till then about the hype of reality shows and singing stars... But by the time the show was in the last episodes, I was totally hooked... the finish was nail-biting, and I had bitten all the nails that ever existed on my fingers. I had also send (*sheepish look on my face*) some SMS-es in favor of Abhijeet Sawant ;). But of course this entry is not about Indian Idol, so enough of it. What I really meant to say is that Indian Idol dissipated some of my hate for reality TV shows, but not all of it. Esp. when Fame Gurukul was being advertised on the telly, I'd decided I'd had enough of singing shows and all this was a little too much. So I didn't see about 4 weeks of the shows on TV. And then one day I happened to browse through Sony and came up on the sight of a guy crying pitifully, in fact, almost wailing openly on the TV. Curiosity spurred me to keep looking, and finally I was sucked into the vortex. What started out as curiosity has now ended as this mania. I go home early and wait anxiously till 8.30 to see the show on Sony. I'm familiar with all the kids, and I laugh and cry with them each day. I go mad when I see someone being unfair about someone else, and I stare dubiously when I think some student is being favored. I've even gone to the extent of sending SMS-es (yet again...), and browsing through their site www.famegurukul.sify.com(!!) since I couldn't handle the suspense till the evening, and I was looking at picking up bits of info on the site (which of course turned out to be false hope). But I still read into the backgrounds of all those kids (who have become part of my life now)... I'm wondering what I'll do once the show is over, but till then, I'll be this mad viewer, dutifully watching the show each weekday, cursing the weekends cos the show isn't there and watching reruns and analysis of it on MTV till 9.30.

2) Auctioning: This is the craziest one yet. I had absolutely no interest in online shopping, and used to even give out advice to people about the ill-effects of e-commerce. But here I am since a week; bidding online!!! And again the nail-biting effect. Praying that someone doesn't bid higher, and that I get some product for the ridiculously low price. Unfortunately, yours truly hasn't had much success, and haven't bought anything yet. But still here I am: browsing crazily for stuff on the net, and searching for auction sites on google. (Yup, its time to throw me into the loony bin!)

3) Fitness: This isn't last on the list, because it has least priority. And for the people who really doubt this entry, well, its time for you to be surprised. Because, me, the fatso who didn't mind what entered my mouth as long as it had some taste to it, has finally become fitness conscious. Can you believe it? I have started working out regularly (haven't seen too much of an effect, but yes, its slowly coming...) and watching what I eat. I'm even browsing the net (now that seems to be the common factor in all these three entries isn't it - tells you only one thing then: I don't have enough work ;) and am getting paid unnecessarily to browse the net for personal satisfaction). Coming back to the latest fad in my life, don't get mistaken ideas that I'm dieting. No way dude. No diets for me ever. I just said: I'm watching what I'm eating. Which just means that I get to say no to certain foods, and yes (when I want to treat myself). And I just mentally tell my body to absorb only enough to get it going, and not to store any fat (The secret of effective fitness also lies in mental strength, you know)

I'll write more about these topics on which I've suddenly become knowledgeable in the next posts of mine. For now, I've written too much gyan already...