Rang de Basanti - Prologue
There is an old adage saying, "Where there is a will there is a way." Probably that summarises how we got to watch the movie yday. As late as ever, when we reached SENSATION (one of my favourite theatres-it has nice sofa-seats ;) ) ticket counter was closed.Hundred odd ppl were wondering to manage a ticket by hook or crook.Even though v were pretty interested in watchin the movie on the first day we were clueless whom to approach, how to approach in this kind of situation.
'We' means we three-
1.Me .Was in a yellow shirt,black trousers, with a red bag on my back- was looking like an innocent school boy,
2.Jitin ,The happy prince - staring helplessly. In fact had he started ticket-hunting probably he would have bumped onto a police vehicle - so I didnt urge him to do much in this regard.
and
3. Richa .Undoubtely most determined of the lot , probably made it a mission of her life to watch the movie yday...Sometimes girls get so excited about such small cravings!! remember Preethi Zinta in "Salam Namaste"!
Whatever, we were almost on our way towards another theatre or a hang-out for couple of hours in tank bund when all of a sudden one angel, in disguise of a tall lean guy ,came before us and said "Three tickets, 100 rupees each?" I was shoving him away giving him a look like "kya re kya samajhta re tu humlogoko?" But then all of a sudden realized, this guy was not asking me for tickets but was selling it to me. Before I realized and acted I saw this guy was surrounded by seven -eight ppl, everybody stronger than amyone of us,putting his case forward in most vehement way, holding out a 100 rupee note!! The demand-supply curve was so skew at that point the 60/- ticket could easily be sold at 160/-.But the generous angels , particularly generous at us, gave those three priceless pieces of paper to us (In between, Jitin tried to make a small burgain -- 90,instead of 100 -- but the angels, when appear in human form, are bound by certain limits as far as showering generosities are concerned.So they didn't agree.) ignoring other lesser mortals…U know Gods, and also the angels, must be crazy.I didn't know what they find in us. Probably we were the youngest and weakest of those and so out of sympathy big Dad lent his first helping hand to us!!Whatever, we won the first hurdle.
Had this been the story, I wouldn't have written it.
Even though we were 3 in number, we needed four tickets. Before u suspect anything, Richa is extremely petite. Me is termed "underweight" and Jitin,by no sense of term can not be classified as obese. Actually the fourth member of our gang was yet to come. Before you start mouthing vituperatives to Ashish let me tell u he has been through this a lot of time. He is most experienced in this matter, and he made his presence felt enormously by his absence which was due to some unavoidable professional circumstances (to put it in best words). Had he been there we would have got the tickets with less commotion and this story would have never seen the day of the light.So let's not digress from the topic. Let's see how we got the other ticket.
The angels(Two of them) , who were vanished after bestowing upon us three boons, reappeared again when they saw us in trouble. That’s why they are called angels...When we told them the deadlock situation one of them tried to contact the God, who supposedly gave the tickets to him. Believe me he tried desparately. We- angel the guide , followed by Richa, Jitin and myself in that order (maintaining a safe distance between each of us so that nobody get lost and nobody is suspected), tried to find in every nook and corner of God's earthly adobe named SENSATION and its neighbourhood named SUNSHINE, but could not find him. There were ppl coming out, going in - they were all in rush and we three frail figures were bumped and shoved and nudged.But our persevernce was exemplary.The door keepers , posted at different entrances and exits were asked a number of times about God's whereabouts. They could not help. Even the portly valet-butler - with a police lathi in his hand - did not entertain our queries. The Angel tried to call the God, but probably he didn't want to get disturbed by earthly calls , so he kept his cellphone off. We were almost hopeless. I went around the premises to look for a guy who looks like an angel who could give another ticket. I approached a few. Most of them gave me a stare and a few showered blessings/curses on me. It did not matter much because I did not understand the angels' mother-tongue (in which they normally bless/curse u). I also looked at the queue outside the gate and thought 3 among these would be lucky enough when we would sell them our tickets.
At this point of time, came Ashish. When we helplessly told him the episode he told us in most chivalrous tone, "As u have got three tickets with so much effort u watch it. I was doing some serious work.Its unfinished.And I am going to finish it." Stating this, he started his journey towards the exit of the heaven. Now good friends as we are, however good movie it is we can not watch a movie leaving one of our friends, simply because there is a dearth of tickets.Yes, we are loyal to Bollywood.We watch "Ek se badkar ek" to "Swadesh" with equal passion on first nite show, sometimes get into trouble with police for this. But we are more loyal to friends. So we dissuaded Ashish , told him and convinced ourselves there are " n number of better ways" to spend the night even without watching the movie.And hence we planned to sell off the tickets. Watching the long queue outside I started calculating which price should I quote to get maximum return-120?130? or 150? After all, I lost more than 2 grands day before yday in share mkt!!!
Richa, the most determined among us, pleaded to the angel for the final time,cannot u find another angel for us in the absence of God!And the angel, gave the most prudent advice. He asked her to approach the valet-butler of the Eden - the portly person with a police lathi right in front of the parking area controlling the cars with great authority. He must have seen her for half an hour looking for a ticket desparately.And when Richa approached him with almost tears in her eyes (believe me she did not apply glycerine) he briefly told "130"! Wo , there was a ticket. I was ready to pay 200 for it. We toiled for it so long.And finally our effiort has been productive! But I controlled my emotion and asked Richa to urge him to come down to 100. There was a little bit of arguments, both were muttering , so I could not hear , and cannot tell you!!!And what a wonder a pretty face can do! The guy vanished behind a car and appeared with a 16 fold yellow paper in his hand.(God knows where he kept it.). And he was satisfied with 100/- of course with a little bit of grudges…
Hoooooffffffffff!!!!
We started looking for the angels who helped us so much in our pursuit.We thaked them again. Again and again. We thanked the valet-butler . With fourt tickets (so hard earned) we were on cloud number 9.
When we were coming out to have a light refreshment before the movie Richa told secretly:" u know I have seen where the magic tickets are hidden.And that means next movie onwards we don't need any favour from the angels.In fact we could be angels to someone as well." I have great faith on her.Hopefully u will listen about that story at a later time, till then good bye.
O, how was the movie? I will tell u shortly!
'We' means we three-
1.Me .Was in a yellow shirt,black trousers, with a red bag on my back- was looking like an innocent school boy,
2.Jitin ,The happy prince - staring helplessly. In fact had he started ticket-hunting probably he would have bumped onto a police vehicle - so I didnt urge him to do much in this regard.
and
3. Richa .Undoubtely most determined of the lot , probably made it a mission of her life to watch the movie yday...Sometimes girls get so excited about such small cravings!! remember Preethi Zinta in "Salam Namaste"!
Whatever, we were almost on our way towards another theatre or a hang-out for couple of hours in tank bund when all of a sudden one angel, in disguise of a tall lean guy ,came before us and said "Three tickets, 100 rupees each?" I was shoving him away giving him a look like "kya re kya samajhta re tu humlogoko?" But then all of a sudden realized, this guy was not asking me for tickets but was selling it to me. Before I realized and acted I saw this guy was surrounded by seven -eight ppl, everybody stronger than amyone of us,putting his case forward in most vehement way, holding out a 100 rupee note!! The demand-supply curve was so skew at that point the 60/- ticket could easily be sold at 160/-.But the generous angels , particularly generous at us, gave those three priceless pieces of paper to us (In between, Jitin tried to make a small burgain -- 90,instead of 100 -- but the angels, when appear in human form, are bound by certain limits as far as showering generosities are concerned.So they didn't agree.) ignoring other lesser mortals…U know Gods, and also the angels, must be crazy.I didn't know what they find in us. Probably we were the youngest and weakest of those and so out of sympathy big Dad lent his first helping hand to us!!Whatever, we won the first hurdle.
Had this been the story, I wouldn't have written it.
Even though we were 3 in number, we needed four tickets. Before u suspect anything, Richa is extremely petite. Me is termed "underweight" and Jitin,by no sense of term can not be classified as obese. Actually the fourth member of our gang was yet to come. Before you start mouthing vituperatives to Ashish let me tell u he has been through this a lot of time. He is most experienced in this matter, and he made his presence felt enormously by his absence which was due to some unavoidable professional circumstances (to put it in best words). Had he been there we would have got the tickets with less commotion and this story would have never seen the day of the light.So let's not digress from the topic. Let's see how we got the other ticket.
The angels(Two of them) , who were vanished after bestowing upon us three boons, reappeared again when they saw us in trouble. That’s why they are called angels...When we told them the deadlock situation one of them tried to contact the God, who supposedly gave the tickets to him. Believe me he tried desparately. We- angel the guide , followed by Richa, Jitin and myself in that order (maintaining a safe distance between each of us so that nobody get lost and nobody is suspected), tried to find in every nook and corner of God's earthly adobe named SENSATION and its neighbourhood named SUNSHINE, but could not find him. There were ppl coming out, going in - they were all in rush and we three frail figures were bumped and shoved and nudged.But our persevernce was exemplary.The door keepers , posted at different entrances and exits were asked a number of times about God's whereabouts. They could not help. Even the portly valet-butler - with a police lathi in his hand - did not entertain our queries. The Angel tried to call the God, but probably he didn't want to get disturbed by earthly calls , so he kept his cellphone off. We were almost hopeless. I went around the premises to look for a guy who looks like an angel who could give another ticket. I approached a few. Most of them gave me a stare and a few showered blessings/curses on me. It did not matter much because I did not understand the angels' mother-tongue (in which they normally bless/curse u). I also looked at the queue outside the gate and thought 3 among these would be lucky enough when we would sell them our tickets.
At this point of time, came Ashish. When we helplessly told him the episode he told us in most chivalrous tone, "As u have got three tickets with so much effort u watch it. I was doing some serious work.Its unfinished.And I am going to finish it." Stating this, he started his journey towards the exit of the heaven. Now good friends as we are, however good movie it is we can not watch a movie leaving one of our friends, simply because there is a dearth of tickets.Yes, we are loyal to Bollywood.We watch "Ek se badkar ek" to "Swadesh" with equal passion on first nite show, sometimes get into trouble with police for this. But we are more loyal to friends. So we dissuaded Ashish , told him and convinced ourselves there are " n number of better ways" to spend the night even without watching the movie.And hence we planned to sell off the tickets. Watching the long queue outside I started calculating which price should I quote to get maximum return-120?130? or 150? After all, I lost more than 2 grands day before yday in share mkt!!!
Richa, the most determined among us, pleaded to the angel for the final time,cannot u find another angel for us in the absence of God!And the angel, gave the most prudent advice. He asked her to approach the valet-butler of the Eden - the portly person with a police lathi right in front of the parking area controlling the cars with great authority. He must have seen her for half an hour looking for a ticket desparately.And when Richa approached him with almost tears in her eyes (believe me she did not apply glycerine) he briefly told "130"! Wo , there was a ticket. I was ready to pay 200 for it. We toiled for it so long.And finally our effiort has been productive! But I controlled my emotion and asked Richa to urge him to come down to 100. There was a little bit of arguments, both were muttering , so I could not hear , and cannot tell you!!!And what a wonder a pretty face can do! The guy vanished behind a car and appeared with a 16 fold yellow paper in his hand.(God knows where he kept it.). And he was satisfied with 100/- of course with a little bit of grudges…
Hoooooffffffffff!!!!
We started looking for the angels who helped us so much in our pursuit.We thaked them again. Again and again. We thanked the valet-butler . With fourt tickets (so hard earned) we were on cloud number 9.
When we were coming out to have a light refreshment before the movie Richa told secretly:" u know I have seen where the magic tickets are hidden.And that means next movie onwards we don't need any favour from the angels.In fact we could be angels to someone as well." I have great faith on her.Hopefully u will listen about that story at a later time, till then good bye.
O, how was the movie? I will tell u shortly!
posted by moodygoody at 6:55 AM
2 comments
