Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi will be all of five this summer. Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii is just a few months younger. Kasautii Zindagii Kay and Kkusum started a year later. These four have sort of set a record as the longest running soaps. In fact, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi can be called the pioneer of the so-called saas- bahu, and now very famous, genre on television. You love them or hate them (for generation X and the elite class they are a strict no-no) but they seem to go on forever.

Over the years, for housewives they have become very much a part of life and just as essential as cooking, keeping house or taking care of children. There are some who remain glued to the screen ? be it primetime or the afternoon slot ? for their daily dose of Kyunki Saas?, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, Kasautii Zindagii Kay, Kkusum, Kahiin To Hoga, Kumkum, Kesar, Bhabi, et al.

Kesar; (top) Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi; (below) Kareena Kareena and (bottom) Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin

Another interesting fact is that ?K? is the favourite letter of almost all the saas-bahu soaps. By now, it?s a known fact that it originates with Balaji Telefilms creative head Ektaa Kapoor. It?s very clear that ?K? is the lucky letter of the Queen of Soaps. Filmmaker Karan Johar had once revealed that he belonged to Mithun raashi and, therefore, ?K? is his letter. He and his friend Ektaa share similar choices and a common fortune-teller, Sunita Menon. (also revealed in Koffee With Karan on Star World recently). In films, another person with the ?K? fascination is Rakesh Roshan.

So the list of saas-bahu sagas can go on and on, with the recent addition of Kkavyanjali and Pratima. And there were the past favourites, Kabhie Aye Na Judaai (Deepti Bhatnagar Productions coming up with a ?K? title), Kalash, Kaahin Kissi Roz, Kutumb, Koshish-Ek Aasha (though many of these were not half as successful as Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi or Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii).

There have been shows which have tried to counter the popularity of the saas-bahu brigade. Like Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin, Yeh Merri Life Hai, Ayushmaan (the Indian version of Doogie Howser MD), Kareena Kareena, Kitni Mast Hain Zindagi (a first-time fiction show on MTV, actors selected from a nationwide talent hunt contest, surprisingly from Balaji stable) and the many reality shows (Indian Idol, Dance Dance, Channel V Super Singer, India?s Best Cinestars Ki Khoj) which have come up of late.

But to what extent have they been successful? The monopoly of the saas-bahu sagas has not been countered fully. In spite of the fact that these soaps don?t even prove to be a mirror of the society. Is it so that the Indian middleclass housewives comprise the largest section of the Indian TV audience which chooses to ignore upmarket cliches day in and day out? Big sprawling mansions, joint families, women all dressed up in perfect finery, with the perfect makeup on all the time, too many extramarital affairs, divorces, remarriages, family conspiracies...

There are certain questions that need to be answered. In urban India, don?t women have better work to do than just conspiring against family members? Is it in the interest of the society to show such things as a woman (Komolika in Kasautii Zindagii Kay), getting divorced and then marrying her husband?s brother and continuing the conspiracy games in the same house)? Or to show a woman killing her husband mercilessly (Aparna in Kasautii Zindagii Kay)?

The production houses and the channels have their own interests. Not only the saas-bahu serials, but for other shows too (even a Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahi, an Ayushmaan or the reality shows where the foreign influence is strong) ? the longer they stretch, the more money they rake in.