Awaken the neo urban!! erstwhile the realm of the morose stiff lipped upper classes, the arena is now within anyone's enthral. Luxuries of urban life being systematically drilled into virgin newbies through top notch marketing, the laid back native is now a luxury starved beaver!
Money being available enough thanks to development put luxury on a platter and set it up for grabs. The myth of self content being non-existent, the former reclusive ramachandrans rev up late night parties.
Isn't it a good thing to happen? U may ask. Off course it is but with a pinch of salt. The courtesy and mannerisms we expect from civilised people have taken a back seat in the vile search for luxury and recreation by misconstrued neo urbans. Add to it the population that a developing country sadly boasts of (bursting at the seams,rather), we have a peculiar problem arising amongst our midst.
A smile often said a great deal thru the ages.. be it a substitute for a greeting ,innocent apology, gratitude or just courtesy. All of us now have plastic masks on while venturing outside our regions of benefit be it material or otherwise. A very warm hearted executive at the helpdesk on the way home is a vicious “ i want it!” while in the the supermart. The mad rush to reach home during after office hours leads to a symphony of traffic horns that could put mozart into shame! The public transport being ill equipped with the massive proportions often go kaput or are misused. The metro trains being a new addition have packed carriages with the circumstantially polite gentleman quarrelling for want of space.
A recent visit to the cinema gave me a one on one with the neo urban ideology. A puny queue of 4 people at the e ticket kiosk took half an hour courtesy a quarrelling couple right in front testing everyone's hearing capacity to the fullest possible extent. To proceed to the halll meant a longer queue which broke up once the gates opened! A mad rush for seats which are booked by you exclusively for 3 hours looks ironical to the sensible eye. Getting to seats is an achievement but saving your feet from being stepped on by people occupying adjacent ones is quite a feat. The nonchalant zombie look that the purported offenders throw when u wince is a mute reminder that I didn't do my job of saving my vestiges well enough!
Straight cut to the intermission when yet again there is a mad rush for beverages and fast food. A well groomed lady howling out “ one packet of chips for me too” to alert her spouse 4 rows away, had to first pass through a minor impediment called my ear, which for no fault of hers came in the way. The ringing and the singing and the incessant chatter on mobile phones loaded with loud and louder ring tones add to the cacophony. A overwhelmingly endowed (waist-wise) middle aged man loaded with varieties of carb foods pummels into the row so as to settle down early to not miss a single frame of the second half. Side...side..side..he says being annoyed that there are so many feet beneath his that make him lose balance! “Nonsense people i say, cant keep their feet wrapped under them,dirty fellows” he seems to quip.
Podiatric Acupuncture session complete and my feet managing to live through it, the second half of the movie is occassionally interrupted by the heavy munches and crunches and gulps that the fast food industry had balantly interspersed into the movie watching experience. Cut-throat suspense egging you onto the edge of your seats, another gentleman 2 rows behind receives a call.. “hallo, hallo, halla. Who ? Oh wrong number i say!” back to his munching and the movie plays on sans a well deserved rewind and play option.
The movie experience doesn't end without another ceremonious namesake queue that people break to get out of the hall. A feet numbing encounter notwithstanding i still don mind watching a movie with the same lot. Till god intervenes to shower a dense rain of etiquette on all of us, here is me booking tickets for the same rajnikanth movie at the same cinema again! Needless to say... I am like this only!!
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