The first time I went to a movie…
Movie theaters.
We all go there!
Smell of popcorn, with not much difference between large and small sizes. The happy smiles on every face… while taking that movie selfie… We have all been there. Well, the first time we go to a movie theater is very exciting. I am going to watch on the biggest TV in my life. Well, pretty exciting. For me it happened a long time back, when I was 24 years. Almost a teenager, at least I looked like one.
It’s true I never went to a movie theater before that. And frankly speaking I only went to the theater because my friends insisted and dragged me to watch the movie. You may think why I never went to theater before that. Well, to tell you the truth, I never fantasized about watching movie on big screen. That was never my motivation. For me what mattered so far is the story and the characters.
But after my first experience my point of view totally changed. Let me explain you how. We went to watch the movie puss in boots, the animation one. Yes, trust me that’s what I watched for the first time. Whatever you do you cannot change your fate. Somehow, I fail miserably at the beginner’s luck thing. I have learned to make peace with it anyway.
So, it was a nice big theater. For me it was as I did not have anything to compare to at that time. May be now, I would have to say, it was more on the smaller side of the theaters. Before we went in for the movie, one of my experienced friends suggested we take popcorn and drinks. Her actual words were, it’s not a movie without popcorn and for popcorn, you need drinks. So, my novice self, did not have an option but to agree with her experience. Well, I have learned now to trust my own instincts rather than experience.
We went into the theater laden with stacks of popcorn and soft-drinks. One of my companions decided to get the jumbo fries because this is my first movie and should be memorable. Well, it was quite memorable. It felt like we are lugging food to the theater. As we entered into the theater, it was dimly lit and I had to squint hard to be able to see a thing. Even then I saw faint shadows op people moving around. My first reaction was, why don’t they put on the lights before the film starts. Because it was ridiculous to look for our seats, in the dark with a bunch of food. It was only a given that we spilled something and as you would have guessed, we did. There was a trail of popcorn behind us. Though no one really noticed as everyone was dropping food and drinks and of course it was dark. After a lot of moving through narrow lanes, we finally found our seats. We settled down carefully trying not to spill the drinks. Although it was a difficult feat, we managed it somehow.
There was ad reels running on the big screen from biscuits to perfume, stationary to baby powder. After about half an hour of ads the movie started. It was going well, only I barely had anywhere to move. I had my coke on the right and the jumbo fries and popcorn stacked on the left. A little movement can lead to a series of catastrophic spill disasters. So, I sat still. I controlled my afferent neuron impulse stimuli for bum itch. Somewhere, with the movie running and my controlled stillness, I fell into my happy place. By that I mean I fell asleep. I woke up terrified as I knew even in the dark that I had done the thing I was scared most of. I had spilled coke on my pants. It was cold and sticky and itchy and disgusting! Now would you say that memorable? Well, as much as I would like to wipe it out of my memory and my pants, I believe it just stuck.
