Chp 524. A different Independence Day

While people went to flag hoisting ceremonies or participated in Mizo Fresher’s function on Independence Day last week, I on the other hand spent the entire day alone in my room, indulging in a “24: Live Another Day” TV Show marathon.

I am a hardcore fan of Jack Bauer, and was devastated when the legendary show ended four years ago (season 8 / Day 8). For those of you unfamiliar with 24 or Jack Bauer, let me give you a peek at the immensity of his fan following - When Osama Bin Laden was killed in 2011, the top trending hashtag on Twitter was #jackbauer as many of us speculated it was the Counter-Terrorist Unit action Hero who personally went to Abbottabad and completed the job :)

Season 9 / Day 9 took place *SPOILER ALERT* 4 years later and it followed the usual format of 1 hour per episode, except this series ran only for 12 episodes. The last episode had a “12 hours later” feature in the end. Apart from Jack Bauer, other characters like Chloe O’Brian, Audrey and James Heller returned. They also talked about how other main characters died during the 4 years hiatus.

The best part of the new season was the introduction of new characters played by veteran actors. There was Stephen Fry who played the role of the British PM, Benjamin Bratt (Detective Rey Curtis from Law & Order) who played London CIA Station chief Steve Navarro, Tate Donovan as Chief of Staff Mark Boudreau, the beautiful Yvonne Strahovski, well known for her role as the ass-kicking hot CIA agent Sarah Walker in the TV show “Chuck”, who played, urrmm, once again, a CIA agent in this latest 24 season.

And not to forget, one of the main villains this time was Margot Al-Hazari, played by Michelle Fairley, aka Lady Catelyn Stark from Game of Thrones.

I really enjoyed the marathon, watching from episode 1 to 12 in one straight shot. The action was heavy, the plotlines were intensifying, and I sat on the edge of my bed right from the beginning till the end. The entire season took place in London so that was a refreshing change. Everything was fast paced and there were the usual twists in the plot and characters that any 24 fan is used to. I really recommend this show to all of you.

The reason why I spent Independence Day that way was because of three reasons

1. Because the TV show was awesome

2. I could not take part at a Flag hoisting ceremony

3. I did not participate in our Mizo Association Freshers' function

Last year, members of different Northeastern communities living in Mumbai were invited as special guests to take part in the Flag hoisting ceremonies held at three Police Stations – Malabar PS, Chembur PS and Bandra Kurla Complex PS. I took part in the Malabar Police Station. This was an initiative by the Mumbai Police and the Ministry of Home Affairs to reassure Northeasterners that the police force had not abandoned us.

This year, Northeastern members were once again invited to take part in the Flag hoisting ceremony held at two Police Stations – Vakola PS and Vashi PS. Unfortunately, I couldn’t participate because, as I mentioned in my previous post, we’ve just launched our latest Android game on Google Play, and we’re behind schedule. We’ve been staying in office till 2 in the morning almost every day, and there is tremendous pressure from our investors to meet our deadline and target.

That morning, after taking care of crucial bugs and resolving many issues, we uploaded our latest update on Google Play and went home at 4 in the morning, extremely tired and dazed. There was no way I could have made it for the Flag hoisting ceremony to be held at 6:00 in the morning, barely two hours later.

However, many of my friends from the North East Helplin - Mumbai participated, and here are some of their photos –

I on the other hand slept like a Princess when all the above was going on.

I woke up in the afternoon, completely refreshed. Caught a replay of PM Modi’s Independence Day speech at Red Fort and was impressed.

And then there was our Mumbai Mizo Association Freshers’ Socials later in the evening. It is an annual function where Mizos all across Mumbai get together and have a great time entertaining each other and also welcoming the fresh batch of Mizos who came to Mumbai.

This is where the introvert in me kicks in. Even though I may be quite active in the online world, in the real world, I am one of the most introverted persons you’ll ever come across. I can’t do crowds. I am socially awkward and shy if I’m in a room filled with people.

I’ve even written a blog post called Being an Introvert in our Mizo Society some time back, explaining how there are introverts within our society as well, but because we live in such a close-knitted society and a large majority of us are extremely open with each other, a person who is shy (who doesn’t respond well to conversations in public or is being by himself/herself at social gatherings) is often misinterpreted as somebody who is “induh” or “inchhuang” (proud, conceited, snooty, vain, arrogant). That is a wrong notion prevalent within our society.

I’ve been living in Mumbai for almost 8 years now, but I’ve been to a Freshers’ Socials only once. That was my first and last time. Interacting with new people and socializing is something I’m really bad at, not to mentioning all the singing and dancing too. That is fun to most people, but to me, sometimes fun is just being locked up in my room the whole day with a movie or TV Show marathon. To each his own, I guess.

But yes, those who went to the Freshers’ Socials had a lot of fun, as is evident from the photos below. It makes me happy just looking at them enjoying the moment.

I on the other hand completed my “24: Live Another Day” marathon by 11 PM that night, and it was back to office the next two days even though it was the weekend, testing and resolving new found errors and bugs on our latest game.

So I guess even though I didn’t spend Independence Day with my community and was disappointed I couldn’t make it for the Flag hoisting ceremony, it wasn’t such a bad day, having spent the entire day with Jack Bauer and his gang of misfits.

Hopefully next year on August 15th, let’s hope I’ll either have the time to attend a Flag hoisting ceremony or the courage to take part in our Freshers’ Socials. Until then, cheers.

 

Ps. Since this is not a very interesting blog post, in order to get more hits on this post, I am experimenting with "click-bait" headline technique that most of these high traffic sites like Upworthy, Buzzfeed, ViralNova, Storypick and even my friend's very own Scoopwhoop are doing - that is making the headline extremely intriguing and usually on a cliff-hanger ("you'll never guess what this blah blah did, it will break your heart") and also add a prominent typo in the headline like getting the name of a person or city wrong (in this case, the date of our Independence Day) to get more activity in the comment section and lemme see if my visits/hits increase because of that. :)