The Drive-in Theater

“Yay! It’s Friday!” The mere thought triggers an excitement in all which very few words have the capability to do. And why not? After all it marks the beginning of two back to back no work and all play days. I have observed that even when I didn’t do a typical 9 to 5 job and was at home the full week, still the feeling of Friday night caused butterflies in my stomach as if it’s flowing in my blood!

When I was a child, this was not the case. There was no concept of a ‘weekend’. There was only one happy day which was called ‘Sunday the fun day’! The day started on the couch watching Chandrakanta, Duck Tales and Captain Vyom with mouth stuffed with luchi and aloo dum! The whole day was spent enjoying with friends and siblings apart from getting pampered by mom,then going to a music class and ended with a little bit of homework completion and a good night’s satisfied sleep for a day well spent.

Yup… I am from that era…only Doordarshan, no internet and no smart phone era.

But things changed later when I started working. After a hectic week, my weekend routine was to simply eat, sleep and repeat until Monday morning comes knocking at the door and then wonder where all the so called highly anticipated happy time went! After marriage mostly groceries, cleaning the house and other such mundane tasks dominated the day.

Well this got boring as time passed. It was only when one day I attended a session on “How to make your life meaningful”, that I decided it was time for change. The zest of the training was that even if you are extremely busy, still try to find some time for yourself every week doing some activity which rejuvenates you. This practice is also the key to keep you young and cheerful and prepare you to take another hectic week head on! From then on, I try to plan some fun relaxing activity each weekend and prefer if it is something outdoor. To be frank, this mostly translated to covering the length and breadth of some huge malls doing window shopping,having dinner and watching some movie. But at times I did manage to plan something different, what we call “hat ke”.

It was one such summer weekend in US when we decided to go for a movie but with a twist! The plan was to go to a different kind of theater, a Drive-in theater. While driving many time I had seen this huge open area with multiple movie screens visible from outside and queue of cars waiting to get in. The movie shows and their timings were written on a board outside. I had always wondered what kind of a theater it was. This time we decided to finally explore it.

The show time was 9 pm. It’s an open air theater so the show can begin only after its dark. In my place the days are really long in summer and the sun sets only by 9 pm. Hence the timing. The movie decided was ‘Jurassic World’. I was absolutely elated as dinosaurs are my favorite!

My husband told me that there will be small food shops inside where we can have our dinner, but out of my excitement I planned to pack dinner myself to make it look like a moonlit night picnic, along with a movie. Moreover, what if the only food we got inside was pizza, burger and fries which I am not a big fan of. Most importantly there was no restriction of bringing outside food as is there in usual movie theaters. I made some aloo parathas and packed in a hot case with some mango pickle. I also popped some pop corns and few cans of coke to have a true movie viewing feeling.

The weather predictions are hardly accurate these days so I kept a light fleece blanket in the car in case we felt cold. Seeing all my preparations my husband commented, “Are we going to watch a movie or do you want to permanently settle there?”

We reached on time and joined the car queue. It was Saturday night so the queue was very long. All the cars were moving slowly towards the theater entrance. There were little booths for ticket checking just like in highway tolls. We got our tickets verified and were guided to the area where our movie was to be shown.

I was damn curious to see how this “open air movie viewing thing in a car” worked. There were rows of cars parked in the form of an arc and all faced a giant white movie screen. We also parked our car in the next available space. The movie soundtrack was broadcast to the FM radio so that we could hear it in the car speakers itself. The area was huge and there were similar movies screens running different movies. So this was how it was supposed to be. We can watch the movie sitting comfortably in our car!

The big American family parked next to us were getting prepared to have dinner while watching the movie. They had brought innumerable things with them like fold-able chairs with cushions,tables neatly covered with tablecloth and blankets for everybody. Also a variety of food like hot dogs, burgers, pizzas and potato chips were kept on the table. They had coolers filled with cold drinks and last but not the least a pack of mosquito repellents and creams. The backside of their car was facing the movie screen. Their children had opened the car dickies and sat inside huddled up in blankets ready to watch the movie. They were having a gala time.Their huge preparation made my aloo paratha and blanket party look bleak. I nudged my husband and told him, “See how nicely they have ‘settled’ here!”

We sat in the car and waited for the movie to start. At the backdrop of the screen, I could see the sky color changing from yellow to orange to bright red. Soon the sun will set and it will be dark. My mind wandered. Whenever I see a sunset, I don’t know why but I am transported to my childhood, the days gone by.

We used to live in a very small place surrounded by jungles. A handful of people stayed in that area. It was a small friendly community. Since the city was quite far from our place, we had very little means of entertainment. There were no movie halls nearby. So once in awhile, a movie show was arranged in an open ground near my house. Not that people didn’t have television sets or the means to go to the city to watch a movie, but just for fun it was arranged. An excuse for a friendly gathering. A white screen was erected and some movie was played on it using a projector. You must have watched this kind of movie viewing in the film “Swades”. The movie selected was not always new but some theme which could be enjoyed by all. It was mostly a mythological one since it was appreciated by everybody. The older crowd liked it because of the religious sentiment and the children loved it because of the drama and colorful costumes involved.

Whenever such an event was planned, notices were put up in all public places giving the details of the movie and its timing. People came in batches with their families and neighbors to enjoy the movie. The street vendors selling ‘jhaal mudi’ and peanuts never missed such gatherings. They increased the fun quotient by the presence of their ‘thela gaadis’.

I was very little at that time but I still remember watching “Jai Santoshi Ma”. We sat on gunny bags under the star lit sky of a very hot summer night and nibbled on peanuts while watching the movie. We kids laughed at the old grandma who joined her hands together raising it to her forehead and muttering something each and every time ‘Santoshi Ma’ appeared on the screen!

My train of thoughts was broken by the sudden shrieking of the radio which my husband was adjusting to get the soundtrack of the movie. It was pitch dark now and so the movie began. I sat cross legged in my car seat and snuggled up in my blanket. It was like watching a movie in a theater with the comfort of home. We munched on our food while watching the dinosaur antics on the screen.

The movie was just getting interesting when suddenly it started raining hard. It was the kind of rain which comes without any warnings, drowns everything in water and goes away within minutes. As I had doubted, it was definitely against the weather predictions. I had checked it before coming because I feared that rain in an open air theater would be a disaster. But we didn’t have any problem since anyway we were inside the car. Although we had to switch on our car wipers as the view was getting blurred due to too much water on the front glass. Now it seemed as if the dinosaurs were playing peek-a-boo with us!

I got adventurous and opened the roof window of our car with the glass intact. The view took my breath away. Water droplets from the sky were beating on the top glass. The drops were gleaming due to the movie lights and looked like raining diamonds! I gazed at it as long as it lasted and my mind was refreshed.

Times and people change but certain things don’t. The “Jurassic World” in a Drive-in-theater in America was different yet so similar to the “Jai Santoshi Ma” in our small place in India years ago. The things which actually make people happy are these tiny moments with simple pleasures which are always same irrespective of time and place.

My husband jerked me in the dark thinking that I had slept off. He went out of the car and bought coffee for us to beat the sudden drop in temperature. The rain had stopped.  I sipped on hot coffee and was back to the movie.

In the movie the dinosaurs were creating chaos all around. I smiled remembering what all had happened when we went to see the first dinosaur movie….but that story some other time!