Boy, get up, there's no dinner for you!

Talking of bad experiences, it's hard to miss this one. In Malayalam there's one phrase, "to wake one up and tell there's no dinner". I had a chance to figure out how bad it is, thanks to Al Italia.

It was about three years back, about an hour past midnight. Flight for Milan took off from Mumbai airport. I had not had dinner that night and was hungry, but more than that I was tired and sleepy, so I fell asleep even before the flight took off.

The the air hostess woke me up and said it's dinner, I was irritated that it disturbed my sleep but was happy I was getting to eat something. After about five minutes, she came and told me sorry sir, we have run out of dinner. Presumably everyone else in the flight got their meals. Including my friend who was traveling with me. We were on the last seat, we were students and we did look like students.

The Milan-Mumbai flight experience was even worse. It was afternoon, and I was served vegetarian meals. When I asked for non-vegetarian meals, they first told me they ran out of non-veg meals. When I told them I just saw someone else (who look white) asking for a non-vegetarian meal and she got it, the air hostess started arguing with me, then she asked me for my boarding pass to confirm I had indeed opted for non-vegetarian meals. And then they got me the non-veg meal.

The difference in the manner in which they treated similar requests from me and the foreign lady suggested that I was at the wrong place. I did not expect that on an international flight. That, along with the previous experience, convinced me that I shouldn't travel Al Italia again if I'm given a choice. [I didn't bother to file a complaint, as I didn't feel it was worth it.]

"Lights on" Rocks!!

Have you ever experienced the "lights on" tremors at Satyam Cinemas, Chennai? I am new to the city and have been to just two lights on shows, one a screening of "36 Chowringee lane" followed by a conversation with Aparna Sen, and the second one "Hangman" followed by Om Puri. Both were held at Sree.

Both the screenings sent shivers down one's spines, literally. Throughout the show, the hall was vibrating to an extent that on the first day, I thought it was a mild earth-quake shaking the city. (Okay-- first I thought it was my mobile but then I confirmed it was switched off. Then I thought it could be "Krrish" or some such loud film "rocking" the hall below, but it didn't seem to stop. I checked with my friends later to make sure I wasn't the only one who felt it.)

The second time I was more prepared for it, but it is certainly not good news that this is a regular feature at Sree (or is it only for the lights on screenings?) Some special effect that you did not ask for?

[Appendage: I was watching 36 Chowringee lane for the first time and Aparna Sen was an added attraction, so I did not consider leaving the hall on the first day.

Hangman was boring and cliched, and even worse, the illiterate characters of some interior Maharashtra village spoke English-- this happens when one makes films exclusively for festivals. Hariharan cleverly avoided talking about the film, and instead talked about the new wave films that Om Puri was a part of.

The sound during the interaction session was bad both the times, so much that Aparna Sen and Dhritiman Chatterjee decided to go without mics for the entire conversation.

Another bad experience I've had at the Satyam cinemas was the Subham that is "undergoing renovation", where my eardrums suffered badly. Someone has written about it here.]