Why I do not miss not having a TV

During my childhood, my friends pitied me, the boys in my class teased me, and various strangers looked at me incredulously. All for one reason — I did not have a TV. 

The minute I said these dreaded, weird and freaky six words, people would gasp and exclaim, “Whaaaat? What do you do the whole day? How do entertain yourself?” (And, on one memorable occasion, “Are you very poor?”)

I soon learnt that saying ‘I read books instead’ triggered comments about what a ‘nerd’ I was, especially from a clan of particularly moronic boys, whose life’s aim was to marry their Xboxes. That’s why I would usually hurry to reassure people that, though I did not have a TV, my nana and nani, who lived right upstairs did have one and I was allowed to watch often (not strictly true). 

I also made it a point to slip in the fact that I did have an iPad, which I shared with my sisters and, later, an iPod.

Still, I often felt left out when friends chatted about the latest House of Anubis episode, or gossiped about Miley Cyrus’ new jacket, which she had worn in The Voice the night before. And I never was up on the latest developments in iCarly.

I also couldn’t follow any proper shows about murder mysteries and competitions, because I could never watch in any proper order. While my friends could record their favourite shows on the TV and watch them later, snuggled up with popcorn and ice cream, I highly doubt that my grandparents’ box TV could have done anything that resembled recording! 

Basically, my life was ruined.

Until…an amazing, fantastic, impossibly delightful thing happened. We. Got. Netflix. 

Now generally my parents would fry their toes and pickle their fingers rather than pay Rs 500 a month to allow us to watch ‘teenage rubbish’ and be polluted by the great horrors of the Internet. 

However, I begged them to allow us to at least start the free trial and watch some shows that we really wanted, and promised that we would end our subscription once the trial was over.

My mother finally said, “Alright you can try it. Maybe it even has some nice, educational Hindi movies that will improve your Hindi.” (Fat chance of that ever happening!)

My dad grimly muttered something that went along the lines of, “Once we start it, they will not stop,” but agreed and created an account. 

My dad was right. Once my sisters and I got sucked into the enthralling world of Riverdale, The Series of Unfortunate Events and Haters Back Off, all at a single click, we could not get out.

I must admit, all this freedom can be scary too. Our parents had not put the child settings onto our account, so we could watch anything we wanted. A lot of the shows on Netflix are inappropriate, and not meant for children. In fact, there was a huge incident in my class a few months ago, in which a lot of kids started watching a show called 13 Reasons Why, which is about a girl who kills herself and is very creepy.

Though, as a whole, I think Netflix is brilliant because we can choose which shows to watch, and when to watch them… And we don’t even need a TV!