My Experiments with Sathyam

The tryst with Sathyam, I mean, Sathyam Cinemas, started way back in the 90s. In those days, we used to watch a volley of Tamil films. Hindi was a strict no-no 'cos none of us in the family knew the language except for 'mein' and 'tu'. English movies were filtered so as to ensure that I watched 'safe' ones such as Jurassic Park, Lost World, E.T. and so on in that genre.

It was a long time before I was allowed to go along with friends to watch movies, and then, started the experiments! The trip to Sathyam Cinemas for me and my friend (let's call her M) became a holiday ritual. Initially a triplex, Sathyam, in the 2000s, expanded into a multiplex of six theaters, not being able to withstand our demand for variety. The experimentation had to necessarily be restricted to Sathyam 'cos our respective families would not have taken too kindly to the idea of our going to any other theater in the city. But, we too had 'strict' filters for the kind of movies we frequented, mind you! It had to be in one of the three languages that we had at least heard viz. Tamil, Hindi and English. Already, Hindi would be a major fight, but viewing something in Telugu would have been disastrous in those years, 'cos we did not have any idea of even what 'cheppandi' meant. But, M and I mostly ended up seeing English films (usually animated), occasionally Hindi films and avoided Tamil as long as we had the former two options. Not that we thought it was not cool to see Tamil movies, but more so that we could see those with our parents and the rest by ourselves and hence maximize the fun factor!

Once, to break the monotony of animations, we tried to experiment a bit more. A movie by the name of "House of Wax" had released that very day or a couple of days back and hence, we did not have any idea what the movie was all about. We had most conveniently missed to see the promos as well. Hence, from the name of the movie, we hazarded a guess that it would be a fun movie, as the name somehow reminded us of doll houses and kids. Little did we know that it was a horror flick loosely based on a 1953 movie of the same name. And, once we started getting 'involved' in the movie, we realized that it was no usual horror; it was too yuck to even be a thriller of any kind. When we got out of the theater and went back to M's place, their parents exclaimed how weather beaten our faces looked and chided us for having gone in for a movie without even bothering to find out what genre it came under!

Next time, to be on the safer side, we tried a well known Hindi movie, "Lakshya". At least the stars looked familiar and I am a die-hard Hrithik fan after all. But, we conveniently seemed to have forgotten that we had advanced not much in the knowledge of our National language. The movie turned out to be another disaster, with each of us trying to guess what the previous scene could have been all about and ending up with translations vastly divergent from one another. The movie having quite a number of lengthy dialogues did not help the cause too much.

But, our never-say-die attitude continued, ranging from Shrek-2 to a couple of more Hindi movies to some Tamil flicks as well, till the end when we had to part in order to continue pursuing our respective masters'.

But, my tryst with Sathyam still did not end. A term holiday would never be complete without a movie in Sathyam, good or bad, Tamil or Hindi or English, with mom or with friends. The experiments might have failed many a time; but my experiences with Sathyam have always been a relish.

Today, I saw "Sarkaar Raj", a Hindi movie. Here again, the experiment proved to be grossly wrong, but the Sathyam experience has, as always, been delightful to say the least.

The greatest 'Mood Elevator'

Moods are subject to change, with time, place, people, thoughts, just about anything. My all time favorite mood elevator has been shopping. But, like everything else, it too comes at a price. The number of hours for which my good mood prevails increases exponentially with the amount of money I spend. Perhaps, that way, I feel that I have done right justice to the use of my mother's hard-earned money.
No, today I am not going to discuss my pleasures with shopping. It's rather about something more unusual, something that at most times does not come with a price - SCENT - the greatest of mood elevators.

The other day, I had gone to the T.Nagar vegetable market, which, thanks to my two years' hostel stay, I had almost forgotten. Not that I have ever missed the place at all; on the contrary, I have many times in my past dreaded going there, what with the crowd and the noise, among other things. This day was different. The crowd and the noise did not disturb me, 'cos I was swept away by the scent of the market. I was transformed back to college days, when I used to walk back from the railway station along with my bosom buddy Sups, both of us sharing a laugh over sheer nonsense. And, all through the evening, I was in great spirits, despite having visited one of the most dreadfully jammed and crowded parts of the city.

There are other scents that have such feel good effects on me, even minus the nostalgia part.

The scent of wet ground
After a light shower,
Of fresh flowers and saffron
In the temple on a beautiful morning,
Of friams in simmering oil
On a cloudy Sunday evening,
Of new clothes enough
To satiate my shopping hunger,
Of mint, of spinach,
Of melting butter on my toast,
Of strawberry gloss and new books,
Of old, weathered library books too

And, there are many more too, which, owing to my poor, aging memory, I am not able to remember anymore. This reminds me of Deepa's post in which she says how nice it would be if we had some mechanism to save scent, like how we save AVs.

P.S.: The phrase 'Mood Elevator', most predictably, was given by an FPM (Fellowship Program in Management) student! Who else can globe so much! Thanks Mani :)