'Tis
the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense
respected.
– Charles Lamb
I still remember when it all started. July 21, 2007
was the date for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. When the
date was released, Harry Potter fans (or
Potterheads) went crazy. I saw many people planning to dress up as
different Harry Potter characters for the midnight release. I looked on as
people turned their winter cloaks inside out, curled their hair for Hermione,
or drew a lightning bolt on their forehead for Harry. I saw as people got crazy
necklaces for Trelawney, and made plans to watch the movie even before it had
started being made. I wondered why I didn’t know anyone in India, except my
sister, who adored the Harry Potter series so much.
If you didn’t notice, the paragraph before was
filled with so many I’s. This is how an ‘I’ became a ‘We’. And no, I’m not
talking about a boyfriend.
Jumping
7 years into the future,
I had many friends, across the pond and over the
oceans, who loved the same things I did. Whether it came to a show, an opinion
over a book, or even plain whining, I could share most of my stuff with them.
Of course, being a student, I couldn’t just travel to meet them whenever I
wanted. There was no one that I could just turn to and say, “You get it,
right?” The nod on their face would have been brilliant, but there was no one.
Especially after Doctor Who. If you don’t know what
Doctor Who is (Go watch it, right now!), it’s a British show, aired on BBC one,
about time-travel. The Doctor is a Time-Lord, who has a time machine called the
TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), and travels through space
and time. He has Companions, who accompany him on his various adventures. It’s
just awesome, and seriously, this tiny description is nothing.
It started with the Fiftieth Anniversary. It was to
be released in select theatres around the world, and I was much looking forward
to watching it on the big screen. My British friends joyfully cheered, as did
some of my American friends, as they realized they could go for a midnight
viewing. I restricted myself to watching it later. So much squeeing and
fangirling was done on Facebook and Tumblr, but no one to meet and enjoy with
in person. I took a leap and searched “Doctor Who India”, and my world
exploded.
No seriously, I found a page that said “Doctor Who, India”
and the first post said something about requesting a theatre in India for
Whovians to watch. It didn’t even matter that I had an exam two days after, I
clicked the Mumbai option, hoping that it would happen. Sadly, it didn’t pan
out, but I got an email saying that even though it didn’t pan out, a group of
Whovians could meet up in the city at least.
!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~~!~!~!~!~!~!~!!!~!~!~!~!~
I couldn’t go on the first meet, but decided to go
on the second meet. We had decided on San Churros, Bandra West. I was a bit
nervous. After all, they had met each other once and bonded, while I was the
stranger walking in. My fandom friends told me not to worry, Whovians would get
along just fine without the awkwardness. I walked in and up the stairs, to see
five joined tables with five people sitting at the end.
Ron and Harry met with, “Anyone sitting there?
Everywhere else is full.” They became friends over a pile of sweets. I broke
the ice by saying I would enact Sky from Midnight (Doctor Who, S04E10) if
possible.
For the next four hours, we spoke over each other,
with each other, and to each other as if we were having a reunion after ten
years. Doctor Who facts were exchanged, people squeed as they saw people in
their actual life they didn’t know were Whovians (Shruti, I’m looking at you),
and we were told to keep the volume down at least ten times by the people at
San Churros.
From there, we walked to Candies, spent an hour or
more there, talking about our actual professions, and our other fandoms, and
childhood books. It was the formation of a new bond, and such an enthralling
feeling, especially when most of their opinions matched exactly what you wanted
someone to tell you all these years.
!~~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~~!~!~!~!
I walked away with a few numbers, and so many
memories, that I was almost overwhelmed by it. However, that wasn’t the end of
it. Apart from fond memories, I was also getting a social life. As we left, we
had made plans to meet on the 14th for an exhibition in Vikhroli,
especially because one of the guys (Jai) there was displaying his art.
My parents were a bit perplexed, still are, to be
honest. I am usually the type who loves to curl in a corner with my laptop and
earphones, and actually going to the Central Line for an art exhibition was
something I had never done. We played live chess, looked at some amazing art,
and pretty much had fun for more than seven to eight hours there. The art was
especially amazing, and if I hadn’t met these people, that Saturday would have
just been another ‘lounge in and sleep’ day for me. I still laugh at the
thought of Titwala being a station’s name.
At that point, we had definitely decided to go for
Comic-con (Another thing I didn’t know was there in Mumbai. Shame on me!) We
obviously wanted to go as a Doctor Who group, and seeing how I had never
cosplayed before, I was pretty excited.
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Now, here’s another thing about me. I don’t usually
shop for more than two hours. I pop in, see three t-shirts I like, select two
of them, and go back. Going with a friend for that many hours, especially when
you wouldn’t be shopping for yourself, was a thing I’d think twice before
agreeing to.
Last Thursday, Sanaya and I decided to go shopping
for a scarf that I needed. It was a very specific scarf because it was the one
worn by the Fourth Doctor, looking something like this.
Sasha joined us later as we scoured the streets of
Bandra, searching for the elusive scarf for me and a waistcoat for her. Three
hours later, we decided to go the homemade way and stitch the scarves to make
the pattern. I bought five solid-colored scarves and decided to cut and stitch
them, forgetting I didn’t know how to stitch. A helpful tailor, a small white
lie, and 200 bucks later, I had this:
~~!~!~!~!~!~!~!!~!~!~!
Day of Comic-con:
I was oddly normal, even though inwardly totally
excited. All of us had decided to meet at Oberoi mall for a small brunch before
we left for the Bombay Exhibition Centre. We all looked pretty normal, until
the girls decided to go dressed up in the pieces of costume that made us
unique. I donned my lab coat and nerdy glasses, Ziny got her eyepatch and wig,
Snux got a cape (It is so pretteh!) and an awesome golden gun. We also had
suspenders, badges, more guns, masks and what not. We left for the place, and
were a bit sad at the lack of costumes at the entrance. However, inside was a
utopia I had only seen in my dreams.
We entered to find a big Hulk and Iron Man statues
for posing with. Since all of us were cosplayers, we had to register first. And
at the cosplay booth, chaos descended.
As we registered, we saw people around us,
fascinated by the Doctor Who group entering in as a whole. Especially with
official Tenth and Eleventh Sonic Screwdrivers, you know someone was going to
fangirl over them, if not all. We also found a Master, two extra Eleventh
Doctors, and multiple Amy’s to fawn over a single Rory.
Instead of visiting stalls, we first roamed around
to see other people’s costumes. I was so excited to see an Isabelle (Mortal Instruments) there, and
she was equally excited to see us.
There were light-saber duels between two Tardis’es,
a whole family dressed as characters from Star Trek, and the cutest Leia ever!
As a character who donned the scarf of the iconic
Fourth Doctor, I was pretty sure people would recognize Amy Pond and Tenth
Doctor before me. Which was sort of true, but there were people getting excited
over seeing a real life Osgood. See below:
Some of us had to leave early, but not without
multiple group shots.
The others remaining of us decided to wait for the
Cosplay contest. Around 6.30, it started, and all of us from the Whoniverse
decided to go as a group even though it was specified only 3 to 4 people had to
climb up on stage.
~!~!~!~!~!!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!
We have made plans for watching the Christmas special
next Sunday, Sherlock in January and much, much more. So people, if you think
you’re the only crazy person out there, that what you feel cannot be understood
by someone else, look around you. There are about ten people thinking exactly
the same thing.
Best parts:
When the people at the tables around us started
clearing slowly upon seeing the Power of the Nerds descend upon a food court in Goregaon.
When about twenty of us started singing the Doctor
Who theme song and no one blinked an eye.
Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who and Percy Jackson
in the same picture!
Special mentions: Bangs, Snux, Smau,
Ziny, Zaiu, Sash, Pink, Ron, Roh, Shags, Hark and Ann. You guys are the best
ever!
Special special: To Pree, who was there from the start. And to Ridz, the Ron
to my Harry.
