GOD! YOU ARE SUCH A GEEK!
The first time I heard that one was in the summer of 2006 when Brandon Routh donned the red cape and zoomed onto the big screen with Superman Returns.
All because of the reasons I came up with to explain why the film didn’t work for me (I mean what happened to Superman being de-powered when anywhere near Kryptonite but nothing happening to him when pushing an island full of Kryptonite out of the sea and into space?!!!!). My first reaction to being termed a geek then, I still remember, was “but I don’t even like math”!
I then Googled the word “geek” because all I knew about the term was that it referred to people who were into science and computers and, well, stuff. What I learned that day is that it didn’t refer to computer programmers only anymore but to people who are obsessed with certain kinds of things. What the Oxford Dictionary defines as “a knowledgeable and obsessive enthusiast”, which could also include technology.
SPIDER-MAN, HE-MAN...
The geek, nerd and normal differences didn’t exist in India when we were young. I didn’t even realise I was anything different, except that I was interested in things most people were not and more often than not I did not have friends to, what now we would probably say, “geek out” with. I was not the cool kid, neither was I the ace student. What I was, was one of those kids for whom being invited to a birthday party was a nerve-wracking experience and who preferred reading a book to having a conversation (psst! I even carried books to parties I was dragged to by parents and always found a quiet room to read).
I have no idea how or when my interest in comic books, superheroes, science fiction and fantasy started but the earliest memories of what I realised later was geek fare was watching ‘Friendly Neighbourhood’ Spider-Man every Sunday on a tiny black-and-white television. It seems like I had pretty relaxed parents because I remember my Sunday lunch-time show being Star Trek, and now that I think back, I have a feeling Leonard Nimoy’s Spock was probably my first crush. (And yes, I had no idea how bad an actor William Shatner was!)
The second animated show I remember watching was He-Man and the Masters of the Universe but by then we had coloured television (don’t judge me but I am currently re-watching the show on Netflix) and I remember buying these toffees called Fudge which came with He-Man comics. I didn’t like the chocolate, but made people buy it for the books. One of the fondest memories of my childhood was tearing out pages of the serialised Aranya Deb (the Bengali version of Phantom) stories from Desh magazine, that my father would then sew together to make them into books. In those days, kids did not get pocket money, so you couldn’t save it to buy comic books, and birthday gifts were usually always “good” books. So this is how we made do.
The other show I remember watching with utter absorption on DD2 was Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot, the English dubbed version of a manga and tokusatsu series called Giant Robo, created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama.
POW! BAM! BANG!
I was a binger as a teenager, especially when it came to books. When I discovered something, I obsessively — okay, geekily — read everything by that author before I moved on to my next obsession. So, when I was in Class VII it was Jane Austen, in Class VIII it was war, espionage and science fiction; Nevil Shute, Alistair MacLean, Leon Uris and Isaac Asimov ruled my free time then. By Class IX and X, I had moved on to fantasy and was devouring J.R.R. Tolkien and Douglas Adams. It was also around this time that I discovered a couple of Doctor Who books and didn’t even know that the show came first.
My book fix came less from the school library and more from the local lending library (Orchid on Rashbehari Avenue) I haunted every day for two hours in the evening. That is where I read comic books from Marvel to DC to Tintin and Asterix. The same lending library was my source for Terry Pratchetts, George Orwells, Philip K. Dicks and more during college.
It was also around that time that we got cable television and a whole new universe opened up. There was Batman, the live action TV show with Adam West, with all the Bat-fight words like POW! BAM! BANG! BIFF! AIEEE! ARRGH! AWKKKKKK! I often used them to bash up people in my head. Then came the Batman movies Batman and Batman Returns. But even before we had cable television, one weekend of the month would be a VCR weekend where we would hire a VCR and some cassettes and watch films all day long; it continued well after we got cable. My father chose historical films and Westerns (thank god parents those days didn’t bother about a child watching violent films like Magnificent Seven and Django!); I ended up choosing Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
THE X-FILES TO GAME OF THRONES
I don’t remember talking to any of my school friends about any of the above. I don’t remember if I even tried. And it was not like I didn’t have other interests that I could talk to my school friends about. I spent four years in love with Rhett Butler and Mr Darcy. I even had my notebook confiscated by the class teacher because I wrote RB inside shaded hearts everywhere. I know what you are saying — “those are fictitious characters, you geek”, but at least they are characters from grand romances and not comic books or science fiction novels.
The first time I remember discussing anything that I now understand is geeky was when I moved school for my plus-two and met someone with whom I could discuss things like The X-Files, the show that dominated most of my thoughts in my mid-teens.
Google was just a year old when I joined college so the world that I have at my fingertips now was far from the reality then. Word-of-mouth was the best way to find out what more you could read or watch and I got lucky in college where I met a couple of people who had similar interests and those friendships, one of which started with an illustrated Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban copy that she let me read, I know are for life.
They are still among the five or so people I call up after binge-watching The Expanse on Netflix or gush about Sense8 with or share the pain of losing the Tenth Doctor with. They are the people I watch first-day first show of Star Wars: The Force Awakens with (and yes I carried my lightsaber while my friend wore the Darth Vader mask) and watch reruns of Battlestar Galactica with. Today, thanks to Google, I know about scientists sending a lethal pathogen to the space station and what Jupiter’s south pole looks like and the discovery of seven Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, a star located just 39 light years away from our sun.
Even 15 years back, as a master’s student, I was buying comic books surreptitiously because I thought people would make fun of me, I mean which grown-up buys comic books? And now suddenly, ever since Iron Man zoomed onto the big screen (2008) and kick-started the superhero summer blockbuster fiesta, it is exactly the thing that has become cool.
While the thought of watching the LOTR films made even the most dedicated film buff yawn nine years ago, Game of Thrones has suddenly made high-fantasy cool. Christopher Nolan made Interstellar and suddenly space was interesting to people who thought 2001: A Space Odyssey was boring.
FROM THE MARGIN TO THE CENTRE
Though I don’t like being classified a “geek”, I have to admit it is a great time to be one. The biggest films in the last decade have been superhero films, the biggest TV show a fantasy one and one of the most successful book series is about wizards and witches. And it sure feels great to know that you enjoyed these far before even some of the most rabid “fans”.
I am glad that the geek-cool spell has helped me convince people to do cosplay parties just so that I could go as Luke Skywalker. I turned 36 and my “shiny” birthday gift was a Star Wars umbrella with a lightsaber for a handle. My sister, my brother-in-law and I only accept “geek” stuff as gifts from one another. My one go-to spot in London is Forbidden Planet. I own action figures of my favourite characters. I have made sure I visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Los Angeles, and own the Elder Wand. Two of my dearest wishes include visiting the San Diego Comic-Con and Hobbiton.
And for me the biggest high of my career so far has not been the hug I got from Ranbir Kapoor or seeing Shah Rukh Khan up close, but the two interviews I have done with Mark Gatiss. And it is not because it was the closest I have come to Benedict Cumberbatch (who am I kidding, it is definitely one of the reasons!), but because of his connection with Doctor Who. He has not only written Doctor Who books, but some of the best Doctor Who episodes, and has even acted in one!
It’s great that the geeks have moved from the margin to the centre but all the fans with their
T-shirts and their merchandise make me want to stay as quiet about my interests as I was when I didn’t know I could be considered a geek, and when most people I knew didn’t know the difference between Earth-616 and Earth-1610.
SUPER 6 GEEK COMICS/ BOOKS
♦ The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien
This is the one for every fantasy freak. Whatever modern references you find to elves, wizards, orcs can all be traced back to these three books (though fans will typically insist on including The Hobbit and The Silmarillion).
♦ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
Just the sheer madness of it. If you ever want to find out what your geek friend means when he asks you if you’ve got your towel, or what a Babel Fish does, or what exactly 42 refers to, you need to read it now.
♦ Watchmen Alan Moore
One of the greatest graphic novels ever, Alan Moore’s masterpiece may look like a superhero novel but what it does is subvert many of the superhero tropes. These heroes are cynical, flawed and fascinating.
♦ Ender’s Game Orson Scott Card
Morality and manipulation are key to this book about the nature of human conflict. In a world where humans are at war against a race of insectoid creatures, humans like Ender are trained from a very young age to be ruthless in their bid to win.
♦ 1984 George Orwell
A dystopian novel about a world in perpetual war, a world which is under government censorship and surveillance, remains an important read because of how relevant it is today. Many of the concepts like Big Brother, thought police, memory hole are commonly used when referring to a totalitarian government, here-there-everywhere.
♦ I, Robot Isaac Asimov
Asimov forever changed the way we look at robots with this collection of nine short stories that lays down his three laws of Robotics — a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; a robot must obey the orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
4 GEEKY TERMS
♦ Fandom: A group of geeks based on what they like — Doctor Who, Firefly, Star Wars, War of the Worlds, etc. One person can be part of multiple fandoms.
♦ Nerdrage: The explosive anger of geeks when someone insults their fandom. For example, if someone referred to Star Wars as the film with tubelights (happens often at work).
♦ Cosplay: Dressing up as characters from your favourite fandom and spending hours getting your costumes ready.
♦ Con: Or conventions. A large gathering of geeks and nerds. These cons are dedicated sometimes to specific fandoms or are all inclusive. It is a big fat geek peeve that Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad have comic-cons and my city doesn’t!
FAB 5 GEEK FILMS
♦ Star Wars
The greatest film franchise of all time, despite the disappointing prequels, with most-quoted dialogues and most-recognisable characters. A game changer when it came to science-fiction films.
♦ Blade Runner
Ridley Scott’s neo-noir version of a dystopian world where Replicants on earth are hunted down and killed, an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, is a must-watch.
♦ Matrix
The first film in the trilogy (the sequels were terrible) was groundbreaking in its visual effects that complemented a super-complex, maze-like storyline. Almost every frame of the film became instantly iconic.
♦ 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece is often criticised for being slow, but its pacing is integral to the film that explores man’s relationship with technology from the dawn of time to space, existentialism and evolution.
♦ Serenity
This is here because it gave closure to the story and characters of the beloved American TV series Firefly. Joss Whedon is at his writing best in the film and gives us an emotional ride, making and breaking relationships, giving the story a fitting end.
HOW TO SPOT A GEEK
♦ Loves Star Trek and will give you the Vulcan salute instead of waving goodbye
♦ Talks about “The Force” like it is a real thing
♦ Is 15+ and still reading comics
♦ Recommended viewing list on Netflix is all science fiction and fantasy
♦ Can lip sync the Star War movies, Lord of the Rings movies or any other film or TV show that counts
♦ Spends more time online reading about scientific discoveries, new science fiction or fantasy books or latest developments in gadgets, and answering trivia quizzes, than posting on Facebook
♦ Has surprising knowledge about obscure things like the different ways to lace your shoes for different purposes
♦ Enjoys jigsaw puzzles (and/ or) sudoku, crosswords and so on
♦ Cannot help spouting their knowledge about anything they are passionate about
♦ Closest friends are usually those who share similar interests
