Snippets from a weekend

As Friday evening was approaching , and I didn't get any invitations to any wild parties, I figured I should plan on hitting a movie. A little online search showed me a list of movies playing in the city and since there weren't any decent English ones, I tried looking for a Telugu movie. (As if! No Hindi movies if I can avoid them!) There was one called "Shouryam" (Courage) playing at a multiplex near home. I have been to a multiplex before but this would be my first solo effort. The show starts at 10:30pm. This is what is called a "Second Show". The traditional timings for movies in India are - "Morning Show", "Matinee", "Evening Show", "First Show" and "Second Show". The times are approximately - 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm and 11pm. I found the multiplex and my first pleasant surprise was that the seats were numbered. This meant that there would be none of the "Excuse me, would you mind sitting in a desolate corner of the theater since you are alone and obviously not worthy of a good seat?" As it turned out, I did get asked to switch seats, but to a better seat, to accommodate someone's friend. I didn't mind, but the friend didn't want to switch.

I had to walk through a metal detector when I got into the theater. (It was the same at a mall earlier. Somehow I got the feeling that the security at malls is better than the security at airports!) When I walked into the hall 10 minutes before the show, it was empty! I was surprised because the guy at the booking counter said that it was a full show. I think it's because it's considered "uncool" to sit in the hall before the movie starts; within minutes people started pouring in and the hall was full. There were no previews of movies, but they sang the national anthem before the movie began and everyone stood. They took it relatively seriously in that I couldn't hear any whispering going on or people refusing to stand up.

The movie itself was pretty crappy - when will directors realize that you need to be able to tell a good story before you can put it on film - but the experience was sort of fun. There was a lot of whistling and howling at the heroine, at the hero as he beat up the villains and at the comedy scenes. There weren't many (any?) single girls and very few married women. Perhaps it was because it was a second show. As the show ended and I took my vehicle (I'm going to refer to it as as a scooter) on the road, it felt oddly comforting. It was the first time in ages that I was on Indian roads that late (1:30 am). But I was on my own vehicle and was free to just do whatever I wanted. I didn't have to rush home. I could go into the city and get wild. But that's the kind of freedom you relish when you're 15 or 20. At my age I just wanted to get home and curl into my blanket and pass out. Which is exactly what I did.

On Saturday I applied for a land line. And spent the rest of the day driving around my new city. It was a very nice day and the traffic wasn't terrible. I visited a National War Memorial. I say "a" because it seems there are many such memorials in the country. And then I tried to visit a mall but felt too cheap to pay for the parking. I went to a book store instead and got myself a big book of Sudoku! There's a lot of new Indian authors writing about a whole lot of crappy topics that the new generation is supposed to care about (books of fiction about call centers, career-oriented single women,romance in college etc) . I sincerely hope this fad dies a quick death so we can get some real literature.

It looks pretty unlikely that I'll be getting broadband at home. So it'll be either dial-up or some sort of a wireless card. I almost certainly won't get the Vonage phone to work. So no US number for me. (If you really love me you'll pay for the long distance call, man!)