Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Adhik Sivakumar - 8IG-A - 2018-19



            What a day! It has been a day filled with mixed emotions, both negative and positive, regret and content. I have just applied for a tv show. “This show is going to be a big hit,” I assumed, as I lay back in my office chair. This show would take away my weekend, but it was worth it. This wasn't just any show, it was a survivalist show. But, this wasn't a real show, it was just a hoax to get some extra money. I had a tinge of perturbation, but that soon faded away as I had other office matters to attend to. Many of my colleagues were supporting me for my show, as my regret and dejection of failing my so called ‘fans’ grew. “Hey, I think it’s a good idea for you to take up the extra job,” my colleague Chris said, as he nudged past me. “I can’t let them find out, or they’re going to be downhearted,” I thought, woefully.
My show would be airing tomorrow, so I had a lot to prepare for, so my director decided we would bring a team of specialists to tell me what to say during the whole show, as I didn’t even have primal survival knowledge. I could handle snakes, spiders, or any animal or insect, but my worry was, I would get caught faking the show, as I would eat normal food and not animals and insects for food. The water I drink would be bottled, but I would show to the camera, I am drinking lake water.

The Next Day

It was Saturday, the day my show would be airing. “You nervous?”the cameraman queried, as he winked at me. Our crew consisted of some experts in different fields, a cameraman, and a producer and director. As he said that, I had a feeling of repent. We got into the jeep. It was a short drive from the studio, but the journey to the forest was going to be bumpy, as the routes we were going to take had rugged roads. Soon after we left our city,
the setting changed from city to forests, where my show was to be hosted. The forest had tall trees and overall a bleak location, as the sky darkened and a torrent emerged. It was a cunning move for me to be letting down all my new fans, but that feeling dissipated, as we entered the forest. It was an eerie place, rife with insects and animals of all colors and sizes. My regret turned into a state of apathy. “This is where your show would be hosted, and we switch forestsevery 4 shows,” the director pronounced. I don’t know how people survive in the forest alone, because I don’t even have primal knowledge as to how to find food, water, and shelter, as the specialists will tell me everything pertaining to survival I need to say for the duration of the show. “Action!” exclaimed the director, as the clapperboard clacked. Everything went normal in the show, as the specialists built a shelter for me, and we aired only cuts of me taking some leaves to the shelter. The fire was made by me, because who wouldn’t know how to make a fire? I took some water from a waterfall, while the scenic waterfall was gushing away water into the river beneath. I boiled the water, but I replaced the dirty river water with bottled water, and we cut that part out. As we were finishing up the show, we heard a rustling of bushes behind us. The cameraman asked,”Did you hear that?”. As we all nodded, a grizzly bear emerged from the bushes. “Run!” the whole crew said in unison. As we ran back to our car, the grizzly bear, with its amazing speed chased after us, but luckily our car was nearby, as I turned the ignition key, the grizzly bear pounded on the car window. As we cruised along the bumpy, rugged road, the cameraman reviewed the tape. “We got it all on tape!” the cameraman exclaimed. In our Facebook page, everyone was commenting, “Great Show” or “Continue with your show”, but no one suspected our show of being fake, as we encountered a real bear in our show. Our show was a huge success, and its popularity grew with every show. But on the fourth day, our show was on the verge of ruins. There was a man who was a frequent watcher of our show, as he stumbled upon us. Apparently, the man lived in a cabin in the same forest we aired on for the past 3 shows. He took a video on his phone, exposing our true colors and fraudulence to the world, and most importantly, my fans. He captioned his video, “Tom’s Adventures” is a fraud and has been cheating us for the past month  and should be punished.” The video started off with him being surprised and startled of my presence, but as the video progressed, his tone became disappointed. As soon as the video was uploaded, our show got banned from live tv.  My decision to make a fake show was very foolish and greedy. My facebook follower count dropped from 12000 to 100. The account was flooded with mean messages about my trickery and deceit. “Why did you trick us, to get money?” was most people’s question. Now, my feeling of guilt was so high, I wanted to make it up to my fans, by making a real show of surviving. “From now on my show will be genuine,” I announced on my Facebook account. I went to the tv station to apologize and beseeched them to give us a spot for a real and genuine show. “Can you please give me a spot on the tv show? This time my show will be genuine.” I begged them. After a slight hesitation, the tv broadcasters replied, “Okay, but your show HAS to be authentic, or you and your crew will face consequences; people have to physically view each of your shows to check its legitimacy. Tomorrow we have a open slot, that was going to be for repeating shows, you can take that one.” “Ok, let’s do it tomorrow,” I declared, enthusiastically. So today, I spent all day just studying survival skills and animal behaviors, on the pretence that I would face consequences and lose fans if I didn’t.
The Next Day
Today was the real nervous day, as I memorized so many things, I didn’t know if I remembered all of it. “You ready this time?” my old cameraman uttered. “Yes,” I said, with an unknown sense of pride. So, as we got into the care, a new feeling overcame me, not regret, like last time, but thrill and energy. The forest, looked alive and vibrant unlike the last 4 times. As we aired, everything went smooth, and I said my lines with fervour. Each of my shows were big hits, and the people at my shows verified it. My show got popular and my show remained legitimate. So, the moral of the story is, you shouldn’t cheat, or you will receive bad luck in return.

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