CID went off air, and so did my life

1997 was a year when I had no concept of criminals or law enforcers to catch said criminals. That's the same year CID aired for the first time. I still had no idea what it was about since I was still a big fat baby who knew nothing about the real monsters of this world. But fast forward a few years and CID became the magnetic needle to my moral compass, and now my compass is broken.

Week after week I would watch ACP Pradyuman solve cases that seemed unsolvable. The sheer brilliance of this evergreen man can't be put into words. The way those big beady eyes glimmer when he gets a lead, shows his passion for justice. And who could forget the iconic pickle jar opening motion he does with his hands? When he looks directly at me through the TV and twists his hands, he twists my insides as well. He has been leading his team for 21 years now; I would pay any price to do a leadership workshop conducted by him. But now, he won't be spinning his fingers for three whole months and my head is spinning just thinking about that.

Let's talk about the destroyer of doors, Daya. I can't even imagine how many murderers would've gotten away if it weren't for his boulder shoulders and bulldozer legs. We see beefy guys all the time but how many put those muscles to actual use? That is what Daya teaches us — practicality. "What if he breaks into the wrong house? Wouldn't he have to pay for the broken door?" Do you think Daya would make such a miscalculation? What's more is that he always follows Pradyuman's orders, who has perfect judgement in every situation. Whenever he barged into a house, my heart would pound and I wished for him to one day kick my door down too. Now, all the pounding I experience comes from the stress of Daya not being with me.

Then we have the occasional problematic member, Abhijeet. This guy has betrayed the team a couple of times. Between his betrayals and love for Dr Tarika, he is a multifaceted person. One can't put Abhijeet into an archetype, and that is the sign of great fiction. He also teaches us to never lose hope when it comes to love, since Dr Tarika is way out of Abhijeet's league.

Aside from the three main inspectors, we have Fredricks, who is the comic relief. The inclusion of someone like him alludes to the fact that we can't be serious all the time and need laughter to remain sane and forget about all the problems, even when the problem is a criminal who murdered their spouse and escaped with the contents of their joint bank account. Now who's going to make jokes at inappropriate times and make me laugh at corpses?

Finally, let's not forget the forensic genius, Dr Salunkhe. He can pretty much figure out anything, from disfigured faces to stained clothing. He's so smart that he can defy the laws of technology, like zooming in a JPEG image or CCTV footage without losing quality. It definitely makes sense since he uses a special hackerman operating system. Not only is he smart but also extremely sarcastic, and everyone knows sarcasm is a sign of immense intelligence, ain't I right, Chandler Bing fans?

CID was like the glue that bonded my family together. We would watch siblings killing each other and have a wholesome time. Now that the glue is gone, my family will surely fall apart. No other show can bring us all in the same room again. So, I urge Daya to kick this hiatus and bring the team back to continue this never ending cat and mouse game. I hope I can keep my sanity by watching the reruns of over a thousand episodes, but it's not the same, it will never be the same…

Shoaib Ahmed Sayam tortures himself by watching fake sports and Vietnamese cartoons. Help him at fb.com/ooribabamama