Fear Factor

The current reality show that has me glued to the TV screen like a child to advertisements is the Khataron ke Khiladi or KKK. I missed the season 1 simply because the cable TV operator did not have this channel called Colours in his bouquet at that time. So maybe it is the novelty of seeing a new format for the first time that has caught my fancy. Yes I did see a few international episodes of the show Fear Factor but known celebrities performing dare devil stunts makes for interesting viewing and to add to that the show being hosted by Akshay Kumar an all time stuntman cum actor and a popular one at that makes it even more fun.

Any channel that I tune into does have at least one reality show to its claim. With the popularity of reality surging or so it seems, there have been umpteen areas that have been televised live possibly rigged too at times. Singing dancing shows, quizes, matrimonial hunt leading to marriage, adventure, road trips. The choices are abundant. It is not that I am a hard core reality TV junkie or a hard core Akshay Kumar fan but still here I was tunning day after day at the prime time spot to Colours to catch my daily doze of adrenaline rush. I wondered why was it so addictive. Possibly it is the constant challenge to expand the boundaries and horizons of the mind that we sometimes knowingly and at times unknowing set.  KKK is one of the shows that challenges not only the physical prowess but also the mental capabilities. Contestants being stumped with such difficult stunts that any normal human being could not even imagine let alone experience even once in a lifetime. Almost all of the challenges are about training the mind and conquering the fear, an emotion that is the body's basic in built autocop mechanism to protect from the perceived dangers. Again dangers that fit into the realms of the set boundaries. Fear of cold waters mercilessly lashing the body, fear of losing balance atop a moving vehicle, fear of choking while inhaling tear gas, fear of creepy insects crawling all over the body and any such rational or irrational stimuli. Many a times I question myself would I be able to do something like this? Though it clearly seems an immensely daunting task, yet you see these contestants actually perform these with flying colours.

It is possibly the ability to take control over our mind before it controls us. Before the irrational takes over the rational. Like in the past my only reaction to anything fearful was the obvious that is to get scared. I happened to have a discussion with a friend who once told me that the only way out is rational thought process. When you train your mind to think logically when presented with a fearful situation, your mind draws an action plan, a response or many a times a conclusion that the situation in itself is invalid to be a fearful stimulus. I believe the triumph is in going beyond the initial response to draw an action plan BEFORE panic strikes. 

Maybe I may or may not be in a situation even remotely close to what is done in fear factor but I take one thing away from the show that nothing is impossible. As Nike has so beautifully put it "Impossible is nothing".