Gossip Girl: A victim's story

I thought addictions and withdrawal symptoms apply only to drugs, alcohol, smoking and the like. Such a misconception! My recent addiction to GOSSIP GIRL has definitely proved me wrong! Three nights before my semester examinations began, when I should have been studying, I said to my roommate, “I’ll just watch one episode of it and see what all this fuss is about and stop at that.” She gave me a very knowing, scornful smile and said “Ya OK, Good luck with that.” I was even more eager to watch it with that remark and then, I realised, I could not stop. I lost track of time, lost sleep, refused to study and eat, all to watch 18 episodes of Season 1, each being 42 minutes long. So that’s 18x42=756 minutes=which is around 12 and a half hours. That time was uselessly spent finding out why Nate Archibald cheated on Blair Waldorf for her best friend, Serena Van der Woodsen, who despite her glamorous life, fell in love with Brooklyn’s Lonely Boy Dan Humphrey, whose little sister Jenny was trying desperately to fit in and whose father, Rufus, had dated Serena’s mother, Lily, in the past, who was now getting married to Bart Bass, the father of Chuck Bass, the college’s rich, spoilt playboy!

As is evident from above, I was pretty much hooked till I finished it. I’d stock up on lots of junk food so that I wouldn’t have to go down to the mess for meals and so to say, ‘waste time’. I do not know if it was worth it, but somehow, I did reasonably well in my examinations. I could not make Gossip Girl my incentive to work because the second season was not available for one reason or the other. Thankfully! As soon as the exams ended, however, I got season 2 and the folder with the 25 episodes (25x42=1050 minutes=17 and a half hours) was put onto my desktop. My laptop was only left for the food or the use of the toilet. I sat and watched it religiously screaming out only one or two words like “Bitch!”, “You can’t do that!”, “Awwww”, or other such reactions to the episodes. A sense of completion and achievement filled me when the last episode got over. But then, the paranoia started for the search of the third season. I am not wandering in the corridors of Mhada Hostel, knocking on random rooms, with a pen drive in my hand, hoping that some wonderful human being would be so kind as to give me all the episodes of Season 3 that are already out! Gossip Girl. XOXO