One of my relative who was very jealous of my father and mother, was very amused with my choice of the person I chose as my wife. She even expressed the same at the time of my Marriage reception.
She must have been imagining how difficult it will be for my father to adjust to my marriage. And, she was gleeful with my father’s predicament.
I could understand her thinking.
My wife was short, dark and came from a small (very small) town background.
Was not comfortable speaking English. All these were considered negative points for a girl to be married by the same relatives.
And, how it turned out.
It was this short dark girl who looked after my dad with properly cooked food (he was a finicky eater), tolerated his mood swings and also learnt to keep him happy by nudging him accompany us to hotels, and scenic spots.
All this happened over a period of time.
But, my dear wife gave indications of what was to come from the beginning.
It all began a few weeks, in fact 2 weeks after marriage.
It was a Saturday afternoon and I noticed my wife was silent and unusually quiet. So, I asked her to get dressed up and we will go for a drive. 1995 Dec. In those days we could drive still around Bengaluru, you know!
We went to Majestic and were walking down the Cinema Road, and right opposite Santosh Theatre I asked her which songs does she like or which were the ones she liked to hear?
She was hesitant but after a bit of encouragement said – “Nirantharamu Vasantumu Le” from a little known movie “Preminchu Pelladu”.
It is available on Youtube.
I wanted to surprise her by buying the song. I knew that right in front of Majestic theatre a few steps from Santosh Theatre, there is a cart selling audio cassettes. But, I was not sure whether this particular song would be available. So, not to disappoint her, I asked tell me another song which she liked. Again, after much hesitancy she replied “Paruvama Chilipi Parugu Theeyaku Paruvulo Panthalu Povaku” from a popular movie.
As I guessed both the songs were not available, only some silly Chiru songs were available which she was not interested in.
I realized I was in good company, and there was a huge topic of quality movies which we could discuss and connect, ahead of us.
Her choice of the two movie songs told me many things about her.
Thus began our friendship, seeing movies and listening to movie songs while raising a family and having our son, and dad with us during this journey, was a blessing.
I also playfully decided to take her to a different world of movies which she was unaware of:
We saw this movie in the famous theatre Plaza, on MG road. It was our first movie together in a theatre.
Soon, it was my turn to impress her and my son for over the next many years. The Good, Bad, Ugly, – Great Escape, Magnificent Seven, Where Eagles Dare, Mckenna’s Gold, Lawrence of Arabia, Pursuit of Happiness, The Dictator, Modern Times were the several movies we saw together.
When you know how to select, you are all set.
And, my relative still thinks we don’t know how to enjoy life!!
