The Best from the West

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Perennial favourites Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother and The Vampire Diaries are what teens are looking forward to on the small screen in 2011. Sonia Khudanpur, 19, is one among the legion of HIMYM fans. She says, “The show is just so convincing. The actors do complete justice to the characters they play. One couple on the show in particular, Lily and Marshall, come across as made for each other. I wouldn’t say I relate to them, but I do aspire to have a similar relationship when I’m older.”
Apart from the hot favourites, some teens are looking forward to new seasons of Castle and Modern Family as well. “I like Modern Family, which shows the life of three very different families. The dialogues are very American and every episode gets all the characters involved. The underlying message is one of togetherness,” says Esther Cabal, a Mumbai teen. “Another show that I really like is Castle. There’s a father-daughter relationship that’s depicted beautifully. I hope to share the same with my dad.”

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Teens are spoilt for choice this year, as 10 highly anticipated Hollywood films make their appearance at the box office. Apart from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, Breaking Dawn Part I and II from the Twilight saga, teens are also looking forward to the next installations of X-Men, Madagascar, Mission Impossible, Spiderman, The Dark Knight and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Says 18-year-old Rashmi Rajgopal, “I’m really looking forward to the Pirates of the Caribbean film. I loved the first two films. The fourth film is supposed to be the last in the series, so I need to know how the entire story ends.”
Another Captain Jack Sparrow buff, Sean Sequiera says that apart from the Pirates film, he is also looking forward to the Dark Knight sequel. “I am a huge fan of Christopher Nolan’s direction,” he says. “Nolan’s previous Batman films really stood out for their style and the way the lighting was used.”
BMM student Ameya Bahulekar is looking forward to part two of the Deathly Hallows, “I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, and what makes the films wonderful I think, is that they make you believe even though they are based on make-believe. I want to see how the director incorporates varied elements in the film.”

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Teens are very particular about just what they want from their favourite reads, and 2011 offers plenty to keep them hooked. Nineteen-year-old Meghna Majumdar lists just what she looks for between the covers of a book she has picked up: “I should get lost in the book. If I’m not involved, I don’t like to read the book. The language doesn’t really matter but the author has to be convincing in every way, and the most important aspect in all of this of course, is to have convincing characters.”
Engineering student Andre Pinto says the pace of the story is all-important. “The book has to be interesting no doubt, but the story should not drag. I feel that the characters should be explained in detail rather than the scenes. Ideas should not be repetitive,” he asserts.
For readers with such detailed preferences, 2011 has some great reads in the form of Ellen Schreiber’s Once in a Full Moon, Cynthia Hand’s Unearthly, Courtney Moulton’s Angelfire, Kimberly Derting’s Desires of the Dead and Lisa Miller’s Afterlife. But one thing that continues unchanged is the source of inspiration for all these books: The world of fantasy.