Write away....

I entered a competition on a website called Writers.com. Its called Writer's Cramp, and the idea is to give all of us a chance to break out of the eternally elusive blocks in our head, and come up with something. Each day, at noon, a tiny brief is given, and we are given some time to come up with an article (which is supposed to be short). The next day, the entries are evaluated, and a winner is chosen. There is no reward, just a title, as an added incentive.

The topic was: Finding time to do something you enjoy.

What started out as a work of fiction, very soon became a confusing mixture of real and not-so-real. Here it is:

When I was 5, my parents took me for a movie. It was a Bollywood oldie, which was playing at our local cinema house, and my folks thought it would be a good thing for me to start my life as a ‘film buff’ watching an old one (a very modified version of the saying- knowing where your roots are, I suppose). At the time multiplexes were not as popular (most didn’t even exist). Cinema halls were dirty, the food at the stalls was old and decomposed and the seats had more holes than cartoon cheese. All that kept in mind that was probably my best experience watching a movie ever.

I still don’t know what it was. The big screen with the giant people, the exaggerated story of the man and woman in love, or the sound of people enjoying themselves. The whole thing made me fall in love with the art.

Since then, I have seen numerous movies. And it’s safe to say that it is something I really enjoy doing.

A very common dialogue for most cynics is that our life is not a movie. We aren’t always the centre of the plot; we don’t always have funny interesting experiences and definitely the most popular being ‘We don’t always have a happy ending.’ But I disagree with these people (mostly because I like disagreeing, but also because I believe so).

In my head, I am living in a movie, about me. I am the lead, the plot and the happy ending. In fact, it is with this parallel universe in my head that I can carry on with boring routines and dull situations. And now that I give it some more thought, I realize that the thing I enjoy doing, is just that- living in my own sweet and twisted world, and I find all the time for it. It is probably why I enjoy movies so darn much. It reminds me of a different sphere of life- that of make believe.

I am sure my day-and-night dreaming doesn’t make me too different from the rest; because I am sure it is something each and every one of us participates in, just at varying levels. We just don’t realize it, and how it is something we all enjoy doing.