January 16, 2005

NOT so long ago, I was watching TV and there wasn’t anything particularly interesting on. So I decided to watch a movie with my friends. I thought I should check out what movies different cinemas in the city were screening. I picked up a newspaper. Mostly there were Pakistani movies, and if I had gone to see those I would be clutching my heart every second minute. I was in a different mood. That’s why when I noticed that Jumanji was being shown at a cinema, I thought I must go for it.

I got there with a friend and went to buy the tickets. We reached the theatre and sat in the last row. There was complete darkness in the hall and it took me a while to get used to the darkness. The movie started and there was complete silence. After a few minutes I heard some people talking about what was happening in the movie. I think they had come from a rural area of the country. Apparently they were trying to understand the movie and the language they were speaking in was a bit strange. I tried to concentrate on the film, but because of those men’s high-pitched voices I couldn’t hear a single word. I felt like going up to them and telling them to shut up. Had they been a television set I would have turned them off. That would have given me peace and I wouldn’t have regretted it. But unfortunately they weren’t.

After a while I started feeling hungry. It was so dark that I couldn’t get off the seat. With the thought of stumbling over some stranger I decided to stay in my seat. After a while my friend fetched a pack of popcorn and as he opened the pack, popcorn fell everywhere. I scooped some of them in my mouth. Then I heard someone grumble; he was sitting next to me. I turned my head and saw that it was my friend who was grumbling over the way he opened the pack which was half empty now. Thanks to him I missed the next 15 minutes of the film too. In the end I had to tell him to shut up which came out so loudly that people turned around and started looking at us. I thought I shouldn’t have come. I couldn’t even hear the dialogue. My friend was quiet now. But immediately after that someone started to snore.

Now this was really getting to my nerves. How could someone sleep during an action movie? I felt like pulling out my hair. I felt like going up to him and screaming in his ear, but that would be too rude. I turned my attention back to the movie and ignored it. I wasn’t going to let anything or anyone ruin the movie for me.

After a while I heard some kids cry. I think they got scared of all the noise coming out of the movie. I looked over to my friend and saw that he was least disturbed, least distracted with all the noise in the hall. I again tried to concentrate on the film but relaized I couldn’t understand what was going on. I had missed half of the movie and the only thing I could see in it was a man running with two kids and a woman. I was totally lost. I started to have a headache. I asked my friend when the man who had apparently got up hushed me. I think I disturbed him, at least he woke up. I couldn’t stop feeling really happy. At least I won’t have to listen to his snores.

After a few minutes somebody’s cellphone started ringing. Then a man began talking to someone loudly. I felt like going to that person, throwing his phone away. It would be like a scene out of Tom and Jerry cartoon. And knowing my friend he would be standing in a corner laughing his head off.

Not everybody can have a peaceful evening. I guess some people just don’t know how to be peaceful. On my way back my friend talked about the movie, but obviously with all the noise around I think I was going totally crazy. When I got home my mother asked me which movie I had gone to, I couldn’t even recall the name. She laughed at my sheepish expression as I told her what had happened.

So when I tried to have some fun, I received a lot of anxious moments.

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