A fine animation like Rio or Ice Age; a big bucket of Caramel Popcorn…sigh! Who needs the glass of Chardonnay?

Yeah! I know!

Strange coming from someone who has never tasted Chardonnay! But hey so what! This is not about the merits or demerits of wine over popcorn. It is about the child like joy one can have even at the ripe old age of fifty!

Going to the movies has always been grand fun. Since early age I have been taken to the best of the English movies and I still can remember that it was an enchanted world where pure magic happened in the dark auditorium. Old time Bombay had the velvety red carpeted – yeah the kind that made your shoes sink in – satin curtained magnificent theaters like Metro, Excelsior, Regal and the New Empire-a legacy of the British “Raj”.

Metro Goldwyn Meyer, Warner Bros. & Walt Disney – they all were a huge part of what childhood also was about back then. With my small hand safely clutched by a warm, big and strong hand of a father all was well in the world.

Now I go for the best of the Hollywood with my grown up children who indulge their Mom pretty well. Tides of time have sure brought in some changes but it is funny because now my hand is no more small, years of hard work has put wrinkles on it and yet it is clutched for safety – mine  again! - by another warm, big and strong hand – that of a son! Life sure is funny!

Going to the movies affects me deeply on gastronomical level. An otherwise a small eater, a magical transformation takes place once I am accompanied by my kids - into the multiplex. I can put away enormous amounts of food and drink at the movies.

Back then theater food meant tiny packets of potato wafers – yes chips were wafers back then – sometimes popcorn too, chicken rolls with mayonnaise and a leaf of salad, perhaps a brownie and a cold drink. Now that we all are so Americanized, movies mean huge buckets of popcorn, brown bread corn sandwiches, chips and cold drinks.

My kids at such times have an almost saint-like patience holding my innumerable sustenance packets, guiding me very carefully to my seat in the dark, making sure the supplies are replenished.

Lately they are kind enough to reckon that mommy is graduating to be an old fuddy-duddy, so they even whisper finer nuances of the dialogue I may miss because I am so keenly intent upon the nourishment programme placed in my lap. 

God bless the movie makers as much as God bless my kids.

Have a great weekend all!