A Fit of Frustration

Have you heard of a 'Mukbang'? A raging entity on YouTube these days, it is a video of a man or woman eating on camera. There is nothing really special about the eater and it's the food that's placed in front of the camera that is the focus of attention as is the act of eating. The Youtuber films himself or herself eating various kinds of foods and in humoungous quantities. These mukbangs are immensely popular with each video clocking anywhere between 15 thousand to 15 million views, thousands of comments and millions of subscribers. Watching one such mukbang, I compare sadly the contrasting status of my blog: three or four subscribers, about fifty thousand visitors (that is over the last four and half years) and one or two comments on each post. हाय रे किस्मत! I wonder about what it is that is so attractive about watching someone hog food you cannot touch or smell? On the face of it, the thing sounds kind of gross but on pondering further, I come to the conclusion that vicarious gratification is the only probable answer. That and the fact that this gratification is instant. You see, this is the age of instant noodles, instant coffee, instant news and instant gratification. We have become creatures of limited patience and therefore the old pastimes and hobbies such as reading books are both passè and fading. No one has the time or the inclination to sit down, open a book or a newspaper and read at leisure. Or put pen to paper to write a letter or an email to a near and dear one. And why not, when you can derive the same quantum of instant gratification by simply watching a film of ninety minutes made on the very same book, scroll through your Twitter feed for news delivered to you in succinct 280 words or describe your life's happenings in actual photos on WhatsApp or Facebook?

I often get told by friends: oh you must publish. In the beginning, I would be flattered no end by such advice. These days, a disgruntled me just retorts icily, a sarcastic smile pasted on my face: would you buy my book?
And if that someone, still not feeling the frost of my sarcasm, answers: yes of course; I tell them, frost a degree colder: so what and when was the last book you bought? Even the most persistent of people get the hint and swallow their effusive encouragement after this.
Truly, who reads books today? Or blogs with a literary tilt?
My dreams of fame via blogging have quietly retreated underground these days. Sometimes, when they do rear their timid little heads above ground, they are pushed back into hiding by advice from supercilious relatives that go something like this: oh why are you running after fame? You must write for the pleasure of writing...karmanye vadhikaraste ......

Pah! I am not some karmayogi looking for nirvana. I lust for fame. I want my two minutes of basking in the sun, my instant gratification ...

Tell me, would you like to watch and subscribe to a channel that has a fat, fifty year old Indian woman eating bhaat(rice), maccher jhol and ekti kaancha lonka (one green chilly) on YouTube?