JOIN USIt was one of those highly popular “long weekends” among the software population. Our son who also belongs to this clan gave us 4 tickets to two movies in a multiplex as he had planned to go out of the city with friends. He said the tickets expired the next day and that we must tell him in an hour’s time which movies we wished to watch so that the booking can be done online. (This word “online” is used and abused innumerable times in every household today!).
So we pored over the small print of the film section on that day’s paper and took almost one hour to choose. Though we hadn’t seen two movies back to back since the 80s, saving on fuel money with a one-way trip, we decided to go for it. The wife does not like animation, comedy and sci-fi movies which unlike me. She prefers movies with a strong story, good music and songs which are already well-liked in the radio stations. So we compromised on one of hers and one of my choices and gave the names to our son who booked the tickets in a jiffy on his mobile phone.
We ensured that there was a two hour gap between movies as we had to factor in 15 minutes for pre-food medicines, a little bit of window shopping and another 15 minutes for post-food medicines. I was quite excited and at the same time worried if we could survive almost six hours away from our home and most importantly, our toilets.
I prepared as per my readymade “checklist for movies” for the next day’s adventure. A pre and post lunch medicine pouches for both of us, water bottle, a couple of chocolates in case the sugar level reduces during the movie, two small, hard cushions for me for the back and the bottom, sufficient change in Rs 10 currency for paying the parking fee at the exit, the print out of the code words for the four tickets even though my son assured that it is enough to “Just show the SMS in the phone”.
Upon reaching the theatre, we settled down in our seats, the lights went off and the main movie started. Due to a rare mix-up the film reels for different auditoriums had become interchanged. For almost half an hour there was utter confusion before the right movie started. Our two-hour gap shrunk slowly to 90 minutes and due to the rush at the cafeteria another 40 minutes were lost.
Consequent to this, we had to literally jog to the next auditorium for the second movie, with window shopping only a blur. Inside the dark hall, I think the wife took my medicine and I, hers. With all this different from our daily “laid back routine “activity, we were so tired that we went into a deep slumber in the second half of the movie and woke up during the music of rolling titles at the end.
Not surprisingly, we promised ourselves never ever to attempt back to back movies again in our lifetime at this advanced age.