Witness to Life

I have this thing about watching a movie alone in a theatre, i.e. without company, or a play or going to a concert alone. I just can’t. I have tried it several times and that has spoiled the most wonderful movies/plays/concerts for me.
It is silly really. I have almost hoped that the movie is not too good if I am watching it alone in a theatre. What would I do if there is a great joke and I want to laugh my guts out. If there is a song so melodious that I am tempted to hum it along. I just can’t do it if I am alone. Nobody can. It just feels insane to me, not to mention to the people sitting at the seats beside you.
It seems so trivial but it isn’t. Really what would you do?
Imagine yourself sitting in a dark theatre without any company and watching a movie and enjoying it, laughing uncontrollably, getting to the edge of your seat if it's a thriller and for that matter crying at an emotional scene (a form of entertainment for a big population) with a hoard of strangers sitting beside you. Can you imagine that? Well, I can’t.
The choice of seat plays a very important role in this business of watching a movie alone. I usually book my tickets online and it gives me the opportunity to select my own seat. And if you are to watch a movie alone, it is but natural that you would try to pick an aisle seat.
Beside the fact that you are alone, you do not wish to spoil seating arrangements for some family but more importantly for the reason of some stranger coming up to you and while asking/reminding you of being alone, asks you to move a seat or two and “adjust”.
There is a flip side to it though (I mean the aisle seat). Because then person or a party sitting beside you knows for a fact that you are watching the movie alone. And God forbid if you are too fast or too slow to understand a joke and you laugh a bit too soon or wee bit late, the whispers and giggles will be very suggestive.
There can be several reasons why you have to watch a show alone. Let’s see: You are single for one (due to number of reasons), you have had enough of the dating scene, and all your friends are married.
So basically you are watching the movie alone due to lack of company. And even if you are so lucky to have single “friends” like yourself (Facebook friends not included), it is quite a task to choose one for the movies.  
Gender is an important factor while choosing someone to take along. It is very complex choice to make.
Take my example, I am a heterosexual male and if I am to ask one of my heterosexual female friends to a movie/play/concert it can very easily be misconstrued as a date. Not only in your social circle at large but by the female friend in question itself.
So what’s wrong with a date? Nothing. It's just too big a word for a damn movie.
And as it happened recently, I asked one of my friends to join me for a show of my favorite writer and she buzzed me off. Can’t exactly say why but may be because the show was very expensive for her and she was not ready for me to buy a ticket for her because as we say it in India “Hum Aapke Hain Kaun.?” (rough translation : What am I to you). Buzzed me off sounds better though and probably she had other plans, who knows.
See? Very complex.
On the other hand if I were to call one of my male buddies to watch a movie, it would just be two losers watching a movie together. Not only we would be misconstrued as two loners looking for some action but most importantly there is a big chance that we may be mistaken for a Gay couple. As liberal as I am about the sexual orientation of people, I am not ready for this.
Besides all the points made above, the real reason for my phobia of watching movies alone is that it's FUN. And you do not wish to have fun alone. You do not wish to do anything that is fun if you are alone and for that matter even if it is not fun you do not wish to be alone anyways. You need someone to share everything in your life.
You need a witness to your life.  Everybody does. Otherwise it would just be series of small incidents went unnoticed.
So get up and find a witness for your life or a movie whatever releases first.
See you at the movies.

Facing the Book

It's becoming harder and harder in this Facebook era to avoid people in social life. Let's face it; all of us are stuck with some people in our friends lists that actually do not belong to the category.

There are acquaintances, friends of friends, first cousins, distant cousins (spouse side), irritating relatives/colleagues, old flames, cold flames and all the permutations and combinations imaginable under the sun. And believe you me it's not that easy to get rid of them.

And technology is not helping either. I am sure that all of you have already duly categorized your friends into different groups and you switch off some of the groups on chat while you chat with your "countable on your fingers friends". And those of you who have mastered this social giant to the extent possible must have assigned different privileges of looking at photographs, commenting on your status etc to different categories using your discretion.

In good old times post office took all the blame for all the lapses in communication. All the complaints about not keeping in touch or not writing regularly were redressed with "Oh I did not get your letters honey, these post office people, I tell you," or "I knew there was something wrong with your address," etc.

Comes the Facebook and you have nowhere to run or hide.

"Why didn't you like any of my comments,"

"Why didn't you accept my friend's friend request,"

and you are left with no option but to hit the like or accept button. And some months down the line you are wondering who the hell is this person sending me twenty Farm Ville requests on daily basis.

I am sure that many of you feel the need for proper buttons to express your real feelings such as
I Agree (Meaning: Okay. You are right but I do not wish to honor this with a comment)

I believe you (Meaning: Oh C'mon!!!)

How Cute (Meaning: Actually it isn't but I am glad I have to just click this button because writing that would be too big a lie for me)
Love You (Meaning: Use your discretion)
And then there are some indescribable emotions not fit for expressing through social media.

Lack of proper smiley signs also poses a challenge to already technically challenged people like myself. I for one would like to have a smiley for "fake smile :)" that resembles "real smile :)" which means that nobody would know you are faking a smile but it would let off some steam.

It's not that we wish to avoid everybody on Facebook. God knows there were some moments when you screamed with joy looking at the recent picture of that old "friend" who still looks so hot. After hesitantly sending the friend request you must have signed in many a times just hoping to see that romantic red sign that says 1 and frustrated upon the obnoxious pitch instead that tries to convince you about a free I Pod being given away every minute.

There is no denying either that this BOOK has made us smile, laugh and cry for all the good reasons. Has helped us find our long lost friends and also made us wish that some of them were lost long ago. It has given the reason to young and not so young to talk to that hot thing working at the cubicle opposite them in the office thank God.

So love it or hate it here it is. Keep signing in. :D