"...would you like some mewmosaas...?" asked the cat in white fur on the screen, holding out a glass of milk, as V and I moved towards seats E6 and E7.
Yesterday afternoon around 2 PM, I was lying in bed after a heavy lunch, engrossed in doomscrolling, looking very much like Garfield after indulging in a few plates of lasagna. Suddenly, I felt my eyes shutting. I had a 3 PM meeting, so I decided to get some shut-eye for an hour. The next moment, I heard, "Papa! Papa!!". I opened my eyes to find my daughter, V, stooping over me. "It's 5 PM," she said calmly. "So what?" I asked, surprised since she never wakes me up. "It's 5 PM," she repeated. I was still lost. "Yeah. So?" I asked, a little confused. "We had to go to the movie," she said, concerned yet calm. I sprang out of bed like a man who had just spotted an inch-long spider.
I had booked two tickets to the new Garfield movie for a 5 PM show and had completely forgotten about it. Being a slave to technology, I rely heavily on reminders and alarms for almost everything in life. This time, I had forgotten to set a 3 PM alarm when I went to bed, which meant not only did I miss my 3 PM appointment, but I also overslept until the movie's start time! "Why didn't you wake me up a little earlier?" I questioned her. She didn't answer; she just looked at me with a sad face. "Let's rush now, get ready to leave," I told her. I dashed around the house like a roadrunner being chased by a coyote, making sure we were ready to move within the next 120 seconds.
Luckily, the movie was booked at a theater just a few hundred meters from my home. "We can walk there; it will take us 5 minutes," I had told V after booking the tickets earlier that morning. However, given the situation, a walk was a luxury we could no longer afford. We took the two-wheeler and reached the venue at 5:06 PM.
"Sir, the parking is full. There is some repair work going on, so we have very little space for parking today," said the guy at the gate. "How can you not have space to squeeze in a two-wheeler?" I grumbled. He responded with a helpless smile. I knew I had only one option: to park outside on the road and hope it wasn't a No Parking zone. We parked the bike and rushed to security. I looked at my watch: 5:08 PM.
"Tickets, please," asked the guard. I flicked my phone out and clicked on the ticket booking app. It did not load as quickly as I expected. "You guys really have a bad network here," I complained. Just then, the app opened, and we were let in. "Third floor, sir, go to the left," he said.
Noticing that the right side lift area was empty, we quickly ran towards it. We entered the hall at 5:10 PM, just in time to hear the mewmosa line. It was funny, and I knew what mimosas were thanks to a mimosa-guzzling friend of mine. But before I could smile at the joke, an usher asked, "Sir, where are your 3D glasses?"
"You tell me!" I exclaimed. "Aren't you giving them out?" "No, sir, they were in a tray to your left when you entered," he explained. That's when I realized why we were told to go to the left. I felt like uttering a four-letter word but decided to keep it in my head. "V, go on and take your seat, I'll be right back," I told V as I ran down to get the 3D glasses. "You didn’t tell me to pick up the glasses!" I complained to the guy on the ground floor. "I did," he responded matter-of-factly. I grabbed a couple of glasses and hurried back to the movie.
Sitting in the cozy, air-conditioned hall with a tub of popcorn in hand, I had a moment of introspection. I realized how I had gone into flight-or-fight mode. None of this would have happened if I had set an alarm and left home on time. Instead of taking responsibility for my actions, I had been blaming everything and everyone around me for no fault of theirs.
"Did you like the movie, V? I'm sorry you had to miss 10 minutes of the beginning because of my mistake," I said, finally taking accountability, as we walked out of the hall.
Better late than never.
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