"Oh yeah I know her," I said, looking up from my soup. "You're talking about Nitisha, the film critic aren't you?"
"Yes sir," the young man replied. "Do you really know her?"
"Of course I do. We, well," what was I going to tell them? It's not like we dated, "we were very close when I was young. In fact she used spend almost every night with me"
"Of course you think I'm fibbing don't you, it's okay, you can laugh, I'm quite used to people not believing me. For example I'm also a best selling author! Quite a shocker huh? I look more like a hobo.... Oh come on it's okay go ahead laugh."
They still seemed uncertain. I lost my patience, "Oh forget it, you kids have neither respect nor any guts, you really should have at least one of those. You just lost a very interesting story, irrespective if whether you believe it, or even if it was true, a God story is always good fun..."
And now i'm preaching, I said to my self. I shook my head slowly, stood up, picked up my cane and started walking away from the cafe.
I was still thinking about Nitisha though, that crazy girl. Well I never figured out why, but she was in love with me, with such fierce intensity, that nothing I did would persuade her that I didn't really care about her. And I did some pretty serious stuff to demonstrate my apathy. She refused to accept all this while very healthily proclaiming she knew I did not feel the same way about her.
Any way, she was a real movie buff. It began as a family thing, they would, when she was young go watch movies every week, and thanks to someone's connections, they did so free and in style.
As a consequence she developed a rather encyclopedic knowledge of cinema in the nineties. Then when she met me things got a little convulated. I really don't like movie, and I found the whole social experience rather irritating. So she took it upon herself to get me to enjoy movies.
She began rather subtly, first just talking about them incessantly. specially over tea, I found it quite interesting, also it was the only subject she could really talk about with any degree mastery. So she would regale me with the classics from Bollywood, Hollywood, and whichever international movie might be on her mind.
I never realised at this point I that she was trying to get me into watching them. I've always been a great fan of stories, I would have to be, or I wouldn't have made a living of them, so I was just listening to good, ridiculous, or just dramatic stories and enjoying keeping her happy.
It wasn't all fun though, she really couldn't speak with any degree of facility, many times I would have to rephrase her sentences, but we got by. Soon enough though her language developed to the point where there was no lag between thought and word, I was quite proud of my results. She on the other hand had nothing to celebrate, I still remained resolutely uninterested in movies...
She remained equally resolute though to counter my incessant chant that movies were stupid, and a waste of time, too much effort with no returns. (It's true you know. Plus it's just too much work.)
And she wouldn't have it. She started looking for smart movies I'd enjoy... It's hard to believe she never understood I just don't like movies. anyway she began scouring the internet for critically acclaimed films.
"Hey how about this one, it has three Oscar winners in the cast, and one of the best directors in Hollywood." "So?" "So? It's a good movie we can watch It na?" "Nitisha, I don't like movies no matter how good they are our how many Oscars they win, I just don't like them." "But why?" "I don't know, I just don't ya, what's so hard to get in that." "No first you tell me why you don't like them?" "Well they're boring and a waste of time, they make me feel emo and weird and I don't enjoy that, plus they're not even honest they're always designed with ulterior motives. No one makes movies just because they need to be made."
Then we'd get into the whole argument, about whether films were a form of art, and how, even if they were I could still find then boring. these conversations would get pretty intense, and initially though I had less knowledge about films I could talk more eloquently about art. that slight advantage soon wore away though. And what man ever win an argument with a woman?
As she learned the language of the film critic, and increased her considerable store of information about cinema, my erstwhile objections, based on artistic condescension were soon revealed to be pretensions. My few vestiges of defence were soon razed to the ground, and I found myself in intellectual quick sand every time I engaged her...
Ultimately I was reduced to "just not agreeing with her," and using out dated post modern rhetoric to defend my choice to not agree! Quite embarrassing for someone who uses words to make a living. Or at least I used to..... I haven't made a living in years.
Anyway, well, there I was, feebly disagreeing with what had become my own Frankenstein monster, and failing quite miserably. Ultimately things came to a head, and I'm a little ashamed of this, but I told her, her ideas were just stupid.
That struck a chord, because by then in our informal group she had developed a reputation as a bit of a pundit, all my friends considered her word on a movie not only final but also binding. I was the only person who still disagreed with her, though honestly, what she had to say about the few movies I had watched was surprisingly insightful and well thought out, I'd have been quite proud of her, had any conversation about movies we had, not been exclusively geared towards making me watch one.
Anyway, me calling her ideas stupid touched a chord as I was saying, and in a fit of I'll show you, she wrote a review, of a recently released movie.I read it too, almost watched the movie, it was that good. The newspaper she sent it to immediately made her a regular column, till their competition offered her twice what they were paying her.
I was still a struggling author back then, well I still struggle to be honest, but, she was soon gone, too busy and too rich to keep up with for me. I am pretty sure she still thinks of me, but I wonder if she remembers where it all began... perhaps it's better she doesn't... I still don't like movies!
"Yes sir," the young man replied. "Do you really know her?"
"Of course I do. We, well," what was I going to tell them? It's not like we dated, "we were very close when I was young. In fact she used spend almost every night with me"
"Of course you think I'm fibbing don't you, it's okay, you can laugh, I'm quite used to people not believing me. For example I'm also a best selling author! Quite a shocker huh? I look more like a hobo.... Oh come on it's okay go ahead laugh."
They still seemed uncertain. I lost my patience, "Oh forget it, you kids have neither respect nor any guts, you really should have at least one of those. You just lost a very interesting story, irrespective if whether you believe it, or even if it was true, a God story is always good fun..."
And now i'm preaching, I said to my self. I shook my head slowly, stood up, picked up my cane and started walking away from the cafe.
I was still thinking about Nitisha though, that crazy girl. Well I never figured out why, but she was in love with me, with such fierce intensity, that nothing I did would persuade her that I didn't really care about her. And I did some pretty serious stuff to demonstrate my apathy. She refused to accept all this while very healthily proclaiming she knew I did not feel the same way about her.
Any way, she was a real movie buff. It began as a family thing, they would, when she was young go watch movies every week, and thanks to someone's connections, they did so free and in style.
As a consequence she developed a rather encyclopedic knowledge of cinema in the nineties. Then when she met me things got a little convulated. I really don't like movie, and I found the whole social experience rather irritating. So she took it upon herself to get me to enjoy movies.
She began rather subtly, first just talking about them incessantly. specially over tea, I found it quite interesting, also it was the only subject she could really talk about with any degree mastery. So she would regale me with the classics from Bollywood, Hollywood, and whichever international movie might be on her mind.
I never realised at this point I that she was trying to get me into watching them. I've always been a great fan of stories, I would have to be, or I wouldn't have made a living of them, so I was just listening to good, ridiculous, or just dramatic stories and enjoying keeping her happy.
It wasn't all fun though, she really couldn't speak with any degree of facility, many times I would have to rephrase her sentences, but we got by. Soon enough though her language developed to the point where there was no lag between thought and word, I was quite proud of my results. She on the other hand had nothing to celebrate, I still remained resolutely uninterested in movies...
She remained equally resolute though to counter my incessant chant that movies were stupid, and a waste of time, too much effort with no returns. (It's true you know. Plus it's just too much work.)
And she wouldn't have it. She started looking for smart movies I'd enjoy... It's hard to believe she never understood I just don't like movies. anyway she began scouring the internet for critically acclaimed films.
"Hey how about this one, it has three Oscar winners in the cast, and one of the best directors in Hollywood." "So?" "So? It's a good movie we can watch It na?" "Nitisha, I don't like movies no matter how good they are our how many Oscars they win, I just don't like them." "But why?" "I don't know, I just don't ya, what's so hard to get in that." "No first you tell me why you don't like them?" "Well they're boring and a waste of time, they make me feel emo and weird and I don't enjoy that, plus they're not even honest they're always designed with ulterior motives. No one makes movies just because they need to be made."
Then we'd get into the whole argument, about whether films were a form of art, and how, even if they were I could still find then boring. these conversations would get pretty intense, and initially though I had less knowledge about films I could talk more eloquently about art. that slight advantage soon wore away though. And what man ever win an argument with a woman?
As she learned the language of the film critic, and increased her considerable store of information about cinema, my erstwhile objections, based on artistic condescension were soon revealed to be pretensions. My few vestiges of defence were soon razed to the ground, and I found myself in intellectual quick sand every time I engaged her...
Ultimately I was reduced to "just not agreeing with her," and using out dated post modern rhetoric to defend my choice to not agree! Quite embarrassing for someone who uses words to make a living. Or at least I used to..... I haven't made a living in years.
Anyway, well, there I was, feebly disagreeing with what had become my own Frankenstein monster, and failing quite miserably. Ultimately things came to a head, and I'm a little ashamed of this, but I told her, her ideas were just stupid.
That struck a chord, because by then in our informal group she had developed a reputation as a bit of a pundit, all my friends considered her word on a movie not only final but also binding. I was the only person who still disagreed with her, though honestly, what she had to say about the few movies I had watched was surprisingly insightful and well thought out, I'd have been quite proud of her, had any conversation about movies we had, not been exclusively geared towards making me watch one.
Anyway, me calling her ideas stupid touched a chord as I was saying, and in a fit of I'll show you, she wrote a review, of a recently released movie.I read it too, almost watched the movie, it was that good. The newspaper she sent it to immediately made her a regular column, till their competition offered her twice what they were paying her.
I was still a struggling author back then, well I still struggle to be honest, but, she was soon gone, too busy and too rich to keep up with for me. I am pretty sure she still thinks of me, but I wonder if she remembers where it all began... perhaps it's better she doesn't... I still don't like movies!
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