Watched

2008, the year when the echoes of Oscar reverberates in the neighbourhood. A.R.Rahman, the man who spills his songs everywhere from tv sets to tea stall radios. Slumdog millionaire, the movie that suddenly everyone wants to watch. I am no exception. The local movie theatre refuses to display a movie that needs subtitles to be understood. I am the most unfortunate person in the world. The rent store refuses to lend a CD to someone who doesn't have a VCD player. I am the most unfortunate person in the world. I do have a VCD player that has refused to work since third grade. I am the most unfortunate person in the world. Dad refuses to mend the VCD player unless he mends the leaky roof first. I am the most unfortunate person in the world. The roof refuses to stand firm as the monsoon continues to poke through it. I am the most unfortunate person in the world. The rain refuses to stop, making it hard for me to swim to school. I am the most unfortunate person in the world. The school refuses to give a holiday which would help me watch the movie that is being aired on Star plus. I am the most unfortunate person in the world. The whole universe refuses to conspire into fulfilling my wish of watching one movie. I am the most unfortunate person in the world.
2017, the movie runs behind the laminated screen of a smartphone, my smartphone. Slumdog millionaire. I can say that I am unfortunate because it took me nine long years to get to watch a mere movie but I choose not to. I am unfortunate because I have never known what unfortunate means. I complain of pain because I have never known how pain feels. I talk about miseries because I have never been tormented. I search for reasons to worry about because there aren't any. I keep searching. I see people searching. I have searched to a point that I feel like giving up. To all the people who are still searching for reasons to worry, you will all lose just like me. Indeed, we are unfortunate people. Atleast that's what we believe. No we are not. I am not. Whatever we imagine, someone has it worse. And that's what the Slumdog millionaire has made me understand. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Face of God

His fingers brush against mine, progressing to my wrist and grabbing it tight. An unknown hand holding on to mine, dragging me behind, my wedding ring intact. Blood rushes in my veins as thoughts rush back to the owner of the ring. He hasn't picked up the phone, six times in a row. Maybe he is still on call, his shoulders far away, not for me to lean on. I sometimes envy the stars, all three of them resting comfortably on his shoulders and shining a little less brighter than him. I sometimes envy them, especially at times as these. My head spins just like the earth beneath my feet, preoccupied with thoughts of his smile, his jokes, his tender looks, his silly fights, his promises and mostly just him. I drift off a thousand miles towards him, my feet not moving an inch.  Suddenly this strange hand slaps my cheek. "Hold on," the voice commands. I can't. I don't want to. I don't know whether it is the deafening gunshots, the dark misty sky, the bloodied faces, t...
Read more

The day I almost died

It happened a fortnight ago. Another apparently normal day. 10 a.m. Coffee break. I rethought my schedule. Fetch the phone from the repair shop. Buy coffee. No puffs. No butter bun (To compensate for one tenth of the phone expense). I am riding my scooty. There's always a little traffic as the bus always stops a little ahead of the bus stop. And people would run to catch the bus. That day, the bus is patiently standing in the bus stop with me right behind. Few honks here. Few honks there. Wait people, I'm riding a scooty here, not a bat mobile. I can't just take off on top of the bus. A car comes behind me. The car guy tries to overtake and cross the wrong lane. Another bus comes in the opposite direction. Chaos. The car guy tries to do something. I feel a sudden wave of vibration passing through my spine, across my shoulders, down to my arms, hands and fingers. The next moment I'm standing, with two buses on either side of me and the car behind. Remember peninsu...
Read more