Heart matters!

It was scintillating noise and whistling that filled the air on the release of a new movie last evening …’first release in the entire world’..in the words of the good friend who took the initiative to book the tickets for all of us. I must admit that I felt a lot of things different after all these years.

Movie watching is not just about the movie!

Growing up watching movies every week end in an open air theatre, I simply love movies.  ‘Ten Commandments’, ‘Samson and Delilah’, ‘The Exorcist ‘, ‘Benhur’, ‘Thirvilayadal’, ‘Maya Bazaar’, ‘Lava Kush’, ‘Pelican Brief’, ‘ A few good Men’(Not to forget the long talk he gave me on how the Jury works in the west...sigh), ‘Ethirneechal’ , 'Navab Naarkali', 'Adutha Veetu Penn'among the most memorable ones that I watched with my dad. The list is endless! Of course, asking him the dialogues that were going above my head those days. He was very quick in responding and made sure that I understood the plots as the movie progressed. The Channa Batura and Medu vadas served during intervals kept us keenly interested in this whole weekend affair.

The open air 'theatre' of the good old times now visited with my classmates after many years!

Well watching 1 movie per day was fine. Still normal you see!  My bro too watches movies avidly. He watches at least 3 in one shot when he hires VCDs. This is apart from the movies he watches in the theatres. Well as we know bad habits die hard!  That too,  first day first show was a MUST watch for him. I too have had a couple of occasions to watch them with him. It is  an experience!! Even today while driving back home after dinner he would declare,’ Ok  are we all going back home…putting the kids to sleep and leave for a night show? Game?’ All this said and then a look through the car mirror  (to get my mom’s permission after all these years) with a boyish grin!:) Who would say no to that charm!

Married to a man who is a movie buff too! Twice a month he would ride me in his bike to  Tirunelveli to watch the new releases. I would sometimes never know what movie I was going to watch. Once a friend’s wedding took us to Cochin. The wedding in the church was over by 12 noon. We rushed to the room and checked out. My husband promptly declared that we were to take the night train back to Ambas.  The autowallah parked us in front of the huge poster of Shah Rukh and Manisha Koirala in Dil Se in the theatre after being secretly told by my husband. The surprise made the movie SUPER.  We were prowling in with tickets got in black while we saw Malaika Arora Khan fill the screen and dancing to Sukhwinder Singh’s ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’!The next 10 minutes went in my man explaining the Dolby effects of the theatre's acoustics. That’s how we killed time for the day! Infact, if I can remember well, people in the colony called him ,checked with us for the movie review before they went with their families to watch any movie !!

While my friend threw his hands in the air and clapped, broke into peals of laughter, followed the screen inch by inch told us when we slipped a bit, ‘wow’ing at the hero’s entry and the plot, there was only one thing in our minds!  That was the way we need to watch it. The joy of watching!!.

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience of watching the movie yesterday. It brought back tons of memories for me. As we walked back home, we did not talk about the movie and any of its details . It was a great entertainer. No doubt.  But about careless fun, an ability to throw the world away ,get engrossed, feel the pulse , absorb the atmosphere that breathed ‘fun’, to engage in the world there and yes without making a checklist of ‘Things to Do’ and live the moment whole-heartedly!

People , its an effort and I  admit that after a very long time I did forget myself for fleeting minutes while I watched the movie yesterday. It was a memorable evening in many ways and….well Yes, least of all ,the movie was also great!

My woes !!

By now if you are reading my blogs , you know that I have people at home who have driven me nuts for the last 14 years with their cricket passion. Well, my husband has been playing and watching the game for years now. Must emphasize that with the England test series happening and his own leagues which he plays once every fortnight, it has been a LOT of cricket. I am sure that word in bold pretty much sums up my feelings on that!  The Less said the better.

A normal train journey in India can become dreadful for me with just one co-passenger who is just half as crazy about cricket like him. Somehow he will get someone on those lines to talk about cricket. Its like he had extra sensory perceptions! He would laugh at common cricket jokes, criticize the latest match decisions, smile at some sentiments shared by the other ‘crazy’ man, and now this is the big part…correct his statistics like “ no no it’s the 31^st 100 for him. 30^th was in the Ashes cup! Ok!”  A small conversation of whether it is the 31^st or 30^th one for the batsman will continue until the other person hears something that takes him aback(not me . I remain unperturbed. I refuse to emote to these situations lately for the sheer fact that these statistics can be borrowed by people updating the Cricinfo sites! They are that accurate)..”You know he  got out at 108 in that century of his in Ashes ok?”. By now the passenger has frozen at the details! My heart often goes out to the other people involved you see! Ok the big part you must know is that he is otherwise a BIG INTROVERT! I am sure you understand my sentiments when I highlight that word, don’t you!

There have been times I have risen on a Sunday at about 5 o’clock just to make coffee as he would have to be alert and watch the Australia matches a good 10 years ago! Nowadays it is made at night and left in the refrigerator. All of a sudden he would get up from the sofa and bat the air in an earnest attempt to imitate the technically superb shot that Dravid just played.  He would sit back in the sofa and continue till a wicket falls, when surely if you have cardiac problems you are in danger. For a person who doesn’t raise his voice in the most tense moments actually can scare you with his decibel levels for “OUT”, “BOWLED HIM”! The other day Graeme Swann kicked the stumps in irritation in the recent test against India. So the father and daughter laughed about it and he quickly told me, “Guess what , he will pay a 10% penalty for that. Not out is not out. Umpire’s decision. It  ends there ok. Ha ha”!

But people, have you realized life always presents to us moments when we will have to eat our words! So after nearly 2 years I went to watch him play one of his league matches(Please come to watch me play. I am in form now. The ball is coming out of the hand well)! He did pick up 4 wickets (2 LBWs and 2 bowled). The whole half time went in bragging on how the ball turned and hit the stumps. Well I am used to it and anyway he is so full of himself in those moments that he hardly cares about your expression. So its easy you see;) .

Thats the field setting .

The batting order had him listed at  1 drop. After a couple of good shots and running between wickets, the umpire declared him LBW. Now the whole lot of us in the pavilion did realize that it was a bad decision by the umpire. But our man stood a full minute in total disbelief. ‘How can it be’! Then reluctantly walked back with a devastated expression. The whole evening went in showing us the trajectory of the ball  and how unfair it was! Now its my turn, “ Out is out. Umpire’s decision, you see!” It gives me immense pleasure to shut him off with his cricketing passionJ

His best friends too watch, play, talk and rant cricket(if not more). So there is no hope at the end of the tunnel  as well. There are video recordings done to watch again! There are quizzes taken, t shirts and mugs won! Of course bragging about that happens too!! Sigh!!

An autographed Tshirt won on a quiz recently!

The leagues and the test series continue and I know I have to face so many more such moments and comments.  Not that I am not seasoned to face them these days!  Just the other day my daughter amidst all the commentary from Geoff Boycott and Harsha Bhogle’s studio talks was reading a book, the father sat glued to the television and commented “ Ian Bell  in , Sreesanth will get him caught behind quickly“. Then all of a sudden she lifted her head from the book and said loudly, “  You know  daddy,  Ian Bell is one of the highest run scorers this year and his average is even better than Kevin Pietersen and Rahul Dravid”

My God! The legendary knowledge has been passed down and its another whole generation of torture that I have to go through! I realized that its contagious after all! Beware people if you have kids at home!!  Its definitely something to worry about!! I am not done with my cribbing yet…will come back with more rants on cricket later!!