Dear Dad!

I want you to know that as a little girl of 5 years, you did make my evenings really entertaining, at a time when we didn't even know anything about television. I have such delightful memories of the process you got me and the rest of the neighbourhood into. 

I remember two men tying the white bed-sheet at a vantage point; my friends all pushing each other to sit in the front row, getting into a nasty spat and maybe crying, only to be pacified by some elder; Mom and her friends buzzing in the kitchen with gossip from the area while frying pakoras; the men of the house and your friends from the area making themselves comfortable in the chairs lined up at the end of the bed-sheet-covered durrie where we were to be seated. And all this in the back yard of the house of a sultry summer evening. 

Soon, with a click and a 'whirr', one of your men from the office would start the cinema projector and there would be this awestruck silence, except for a few coughs and a sneeze, all eyes would be stuck to the screen as the music from the speakers created a magical ambiance. The plate of pakoras would invariably do the rounds; no one but complaining of the pinch of salt gone missing in them. As the projector 'whirred', the movie commenced at a pace we all wished we would have had control over. No one wanted to take a break and we were all impatient as the next spool was being hoisted onto the projector. Again, a lull as the next half of the film started. 

I have forgotten some of the endless films you screened for us but I do remember a couple of them like Hum panchi ek dal ke...Dosti....

Now, when I look back, I feel this initiation into films with you was one of my most cherished feeling. I wish we could still do this even now. I miss sitting on the durrie, eating pakoras, huddled together with friends and watching a movie.

Thank you Dad for giving me these memories I will cherish forever!