It was a fine morning. There were eight people in front of The Forum, Dairy Circle, Bangalore. All of them sat calm, but looked tensed. Was it tension, or was it excitement? The early crowd who were loitering around in front of the mall queued up in front of the metal detectors at exactly 9:30PM as the mall opened its spotless glass doors. The eight remained – a few sitting on the muddy granite walls, a few standing, and a couple pacing around with mobiles. And then one girl screams “What???!!!!”. And they all run to an adjacent petrol pump.Was it a planned operation by terrorists to destroy The Forum?Was in a suicide bombing attempt to destroy the most popular mall in Bangalore?Was it the Delta Force in mufti planning to take on a dangerous delinquent?No ladies and gentlemen, no. It was in fact, a much more dulcet, and yet much more exciting event.It was Movie Day for the kids of Rajendranagar slum. And they had just arrived in the adjacent petrol pump – and the volunteers of Activity Centre, waiting in front of the mall, were rushing to meet them.In a short while, two neat queues of kids, all shouting, talking, and jumping in excitement, and sporting their CSA t-shirts, formed in front of the metal detectors. The security guards talking cryptically into their walkie-talkies hovered nearby, but there was no need, for it they were a perfectly well behaved group(ahem). Soon they were inside, and the reptile-like queues were snaking towards the multiplex PVR movie theatres on the top floor of The Forum, escorted by equally excited Activity Centre volunteers.They were here to watch Taare Zameen Par – every kid is special – a new and popular Bollywood movie, featuring Aamir Khan. The movie is all about a kid having severe dyslexia, and how his teacher trains him to be like any other average student. Since the movie revolved around children, we thought that it was the ideal one to be shown to the kids or Rajendranagar. We also thought that we would help the kids have a ‘multiplex experience’.So in the two neat lines converged into one, as they entered Auditorium 7 of PVR Multiplex. They were taken to their seats, escorted by CSA staff and volunteers. Lights dimmed. The movie began…..time passed like a dream… an excellent movie… an excellent company… the kids loved it…3 hours laterThe auditorium exits opened, and the kids poured out, with tears pouring from their eyes. A few of them were smiling. A few were trying to wipe off and hide their tears. They had loved the movie!They were all in the same sad mood from the movie, so we took them for a tour of The Forum. When they had regained their excitement, and laughs had replaced the tears, we decided that it was indeed kind of late, and we escorted them to their bus. Before they left, they quietly slipped us two Thank You cards. 🙂 One for our Johny sir, and one for the PVR movies manager.It was such a heart warming experience. The kids had loved the movie. And we loved that we had been instrumental in giving the kids an oppurtunity to love the movie!We would like to specially thank PVR Movies, who gave us a 30% reduction in the tickets, and provided us with free snacks. Spurts of happiness radiate from the Rajendranagar side. And we… We revel in these spurts 🙂
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