The end of The End ... we will be found

Two weeks since that fateful air accident in Mangalore and the very last episode of Lost too and no, I'm not inclining towards any paranormal co-incidence between those two events. My involvement was naturally with Mangalore as a city for all the flying I've done through Bajpe airport and Lost, well ... you know fan-girl and all.


Every time in this past year, when I've mentioned to my fellow Indians that I was from Mangalore, they would jokingly ask me if I was one of the girls dragged out of the pub (thanks Muthalik and all those before him, you made Mangalore infamous) however these past few days, I seem to be have become the unwilling catalyst for aviation related conversations! If only IT professionals could design our runways ...


Back to 'Bad Robot' no more, every lostie would have their 'back-story', how and why they got hooked onto a show as complex as this.


My back-story is simple, the trailers for 'Lost' started airing in India sometime in 2005 and since it was going to be on Star Movies, we assumed it was a mini-series, rather than a show with many seasons, maybe a few hours long max and with an airplane and island storyline, it easily caught my attention. No matter what, come rain or come shine, power or no-power, the whole family would be gathered around the idiot box every saturday between 7 to 9 PM for the next 13-14 weeks. No other show, not since the days of Surabhi or the weekly Kannada/Hindi feature film on doordarshan (not that we had channel change option then) received the kind of dedication from all of us like this show did. Mother and Father were just as focussed as the rest of us.


Unfortunately the dedication was short-lived since one, realizing that it's not the end after 25 hrs of not batting our eyelashes is disappointing and two, the time in-between seasons is distracting and something that we're not used to. Anyway, that was around the time I first came to the US and well, guess what, they were already ahead of me by a few episodes, once I caught up there was no turning back. I had been christened into a lostie. The only thing I started missing was the conversations we had about the show, bouncing ideas with my folks, out of the original six of us, only my brother and me kept pace and after a while, he got bored too. Along the way, I've met a few co-workers (mostly non-Indians) who were very passionate about the show and I remember going out for coffee once just so that we could discuss Lost!


The finale was a commercial fest, a mammoth 2.5 hrs and that after a long day at the Soup Kitchen. There may be a few spoilers ahead.


What I've enjoyed most about the show was the persistent story telling, the flawed characters who were not judged for their past, everyone gets an equal opportunity to start afresh. It's like agreeing that redemption is for all if one desires it, the end to me almost seemed like a spiritual experience, heavy with emotions and fore-thought. I will agree that over the seasons, it did get slow and ever so confusing at times, but that was no reason to stop watching. There are whole episodes that made no sense at all when I watched on tv, but I would go back and watch again, online or go to the forums, the online fanaticism is quite amazing!


Sometimes being a person of faith and a person of science at the same time is not at all easy, I can relate so well to the conflict, yet it's not about gloating who trumped the other. I liked the explanation for the side-ways world (it was exactly how I'd thought it would play out, it was the way I perceived it although there are still many open questions). I believe it's all about finding the other person that we connected with even if we failed to figure that out here, our faith and trust in people will be rewarded, if not here on earth, then elsewhere? And if I can say 'I trust you', that's the greatest thing in the world for me.


So where does all this leave us, can we just drink of the fountain and protect the light and be whole again? It sounds very biblical and convoluted too at the same time, is there really a cork holding all the evil back in, what's the guarantee that we won't plunge into whatever it unleashes? The end itself was still only about letting go of the limbo we put ourselves in, no man is an island and it's really okay if I don't have all the answers. This has been a great ride, I'll watch the whole show again, maybe with someone who has never watched an episode.


My own side-ways and future story is in writing and everytime I ask 'WHY', I hope to see the light from the tunnel just like Locke did albiet metamorphically.