I love this guy, Barney. If I hadn't met Mamata and decided that a decade's worth of arguments built-up against marriage needed to be summarily overruled, I would have followed in his foot steps and built my life exactly along the same lines. Suit up, it is!
'How I Met Your Mother' is the Friends equivalent of this decade. If you haven't caught up with it yet, it is time you changed your priorities in life. Ok, that's a bit too much to say about a TV series, however iconic it may turn out to be. But I guess if I judged the readership of this blog right, it belongs to a generation that couldn't ignore 'Friends' or its multiple reruns. At some point of time or the other you would have seen yourself in one of the characters. It was like seeing a bit of your life on TV.
Exactly the same kind of clever writing and characterisation makes HIMYM the toast of TV comedies this decade. Launched it 2005, it took me five full years to discover this. Dushyant kept pushing me to check it out for atleast an year now, and for some reason I wasn't too willing. May be I wasn't ready to let go of my 'Friends' memories. I mean, how can anyone make a series better than that, right? 'Friends' rocked. I put it out some social networks that the kind of guys I liked to hang out with should be like Joey and Chandler. see? It is really difficult to create such characters. And frankly, I didn't believe this series could do it.
But then I came down with Jaundice and had to stay home.Lying on the bed, watching the 270th rerun of the 47th sequel of Friday the 13th, I suddenly remembered that I had a stock of all the seasons of 'HIMYM' that I never got around to watching. So I fished out the collection, and started forcing it on myself. First two episodes were, "er...., too contrived. Nah, not my type!" But I couldn't go back to Friday the 13th again, so I stuck to the task. And I discovered it. This is what people have been talking about! This one was really good! All right, the characters have shades of Friends. So do their relationships. You could sit and analyse all day and keep finding similarities. Ted and Robin are like Ross and Rachel. Lily is a bit of Phoebe. Marshall is a bit of Ross. Central Perk coffee gives way to McLaren's Pub, and Joey peeks out of Barney once in a while.
Speaking of Barney, that's what this blog is all about. He holds this really larger than life image of himself and says it twice each episode. He characterises himself in a single word. 'Awesome'. And even if he sneezes, his nose oozes only awesomeness and nothing else, mind you! I suddenly remembered where I saw this guy before. Earlier in the day, in the mirror. Me! I would have turned out to be Barney! I would suit up too, weather permitting it. I would live alone in an apartment with all the latest gadgets and a gigantic TV. I'd have the world's best porn collection and a kitchen sink used to convey the message that long term relationships don't belong here. And I would hit on girls I'd meet in office canteen (no women in bar in India) like I used to!
Except, there this episode where Lily turns wistful about her missed life dreams and how the upcoming wedding is about to permanently bottle them up. Robin reasons out, saying she is marrying a man who will make missing out on any kind of dream worth it all the way.
I kept smiling through it all. Not that I'm missing on any serious dreams myself, but all those porn collections and women in canteen were certainly part of the scheme. No, that's not the point. The point is, numerous people have asked me at the time of my wedding and later, 'But haven't you vehemently argued against marriage and taken blood oaths that you would never marry?'
Yeah, I did. Some past blogs will stand testimony.
But then, there came along a girl who made dumping it all away and running alongside the matrimonial express worth it all the way. Now you see why I like HIMYM so much? There's a bit of my life in it too!
P.S: I still haven't given up on awesomeness though. I just designed this poster to commemorate my Jaundice. Awesome poster. Awesomeness oozing by gallons, really! Here it is, your first lesson in Awesomeness. ;-)
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