BADRINATH KI DULHANIA

We all have those moments in our life when we wish to be away from everyone, including our dearest and nearest ones… All that we long is - to be alone, all by oneself.

A couple of days ago, I had one such moment. I was emotionally drained and I knew that with people around me, it would do more damage to my well-being. I did not feel like talking to anyone… All that I wanted to do was - to just go away anywhere where something could make me feel light like a feather… make me smile, laugh and come back home rejuvenated. Yes, anything that could do that was welcome…

So, I chose to get up and go for a movie – ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’.

Normally, I do not watch a movie without my wife along. This time, I did not tell her or my son where I was going… I just landed in the theatre!

I loved the movie.

Immediately after the movie, I called up my wife and confessed, “I just finished watching ‘Badrinath Ki Dhulhania’. On any another day, I would have got a nasty sermon from her for ‘hiding’ it from her when I left home. But, not on this day. She had sensed that I was emotionally drained and needed some alone time… So, she sounded very, very empathetic.

The next day, during our Holi lunch at our friends’ place, I told them what had happened the earlier day and how much I had loved the movie. That inspired two couples to head for the evening show of ‘Badrinath…’ . But, I warned them, “If you don’t like it, don’t blame me.”

Late at night, I received the messages from them: “Liked the movie”.

I was relived!

The same night, at around 11.30, my wife called one of her friends and made a plan to watch it the next day, which was yesterday.  At night, I checked, “Did you like the movie?”

“It was okay… Very filmy,” was the expected reply from my wife. Even if she had liked it, to me she would say so with some strings attached. I am her hubby, you see…

That’s how it should be…. It is fun!

“What about your friend… Did she like?” I probed.

“She was laughing and jumping!” declared my wife.

“Darling, you too must have laughed, if not jumped,” I told her in my mind, “but, you are not telling me that!”

Maybe, my wife really did not like the movie and found it very filmy. One reason for that was: she did not go to watch it with the kind of back ground I had gone with… I was emotionally drained and I wanted to be away from people… all by myself … I wanted something light, funny and even silly. My friends who had gone to watch did not have similar back ground… My wife’s friend who was laughing and jumping had her own reasons to do so… ‘To each his own’… as the saying goes!

I had not planned to write on this subject, today. Early in the morning, my friend Seema had posted a comment on my last blog on Happiness and Peace. “Superb...Just what I needed,” she wrote, “Can you please put together a reading list. This is a genuine request. In return I will put one.”

I smiled immediately. I remembered ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’. Now, just because I loved Eckhart Tolle’s story on how ducks found peace after their fights, Seema wanted to read his book and she wanted an entire ‘reading list’…

 “Hi Seema, I am going to put it in my blog today,” Í replied, “Please check in a while. Love.”

“Just what I needed,” Seema seems to be ready to receive!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Internet