Reminiscence: Keen Observation

Sham Nadgonde

In my college days, sometimes we students used to go on GT (General Tadi). This meant, every student would bunk their classes, just for fun and surely not for any specific reason as such. During this absence from the classes, we all used to either go out on a picnic or watch movies in some local theater. Since this was just once in a while, no serious notice was taken by the college or by the parents.

I and one friend were extremely fond of watching English movies.

In 1960’s, Indore had a very small movie theater with only two hundred seats – Bambino, if you’ve heard of it. Theater had the best acoustics of the time, and therefore it helped understand the dialogues & conversations, making the experience even more enjoyable. Overall, it used to be a very homely feeling to sit there and watch movies intently.

And I used to return home the usual time, as after attending the College. Every time I came back from the theater, to my astonishment, my mother would immediately ask ‘which movie you watched today?’ May I state here that l had lost my father when I was studying in high school, and my mother was more vigilant on that account.

It used to give me a shock, every time, as she always rightly caught me returning from the movie. I was surprised and worried, who is this gentleman spy who was in know of my each movement and activity.

I used to ask her, as well, about the informer. She won’t say anything, and just smile a bit. My going to movie was never a problem for her, nor I ever was worried that she knows it. Only cause of worry for me, was, that I was being closely  watched by someone. This would make me uneasy.

A day came, when I vehemently insisted upon, that she must reveal the name of the person who is spying on me. At this, she said, there was no such person. In fact, everytime I used to come back from movie, I had wrinkles on the back of my shirt. And she knew our college benches didn’t have cushioned backrest to cause such wrinkles, and of course, only Theaters had such seats.

I had all praise for her, and I took a sigh of relief that she discovers about my going to movies herself, and there are no spies! after me. Even today, I’m awfully amazed at her intelligent and keen observation.

 

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