A New Side Effect

Srilekha and Sanjoy are a happily married couple. Just like all other happily married couples they have a lot of differences in their taste for movies, music, books and films. Sanjoy hates 'mushy' 'mushy' romantic movies. Srilekha hates action movies. Sanjoy hates 'slow' movies and Srilekha hates war movies, martial art movies. Sanjoy watches mostly english movies and Srilekha watches mostly hindi movies. But not to forget just like many other adjusting couples they make sacrifices for each other's sake and often go to the theatre to watch movies of each other's choices. Sometimes quite unexpectedly they even enjoy watching the movie of the other person's taste. We can benevolently ignore some solitary instances when Srilekha actually fell asleep while watching a movie of Sanjoy's taste or Sanjoy was bored to the extent of feeling like simply walking out of the theatre. But on the whole Srilekha and Sanjoy, most often, do manage to watch the entire movie together trying to understand the other person's taste and choice of movies and music. Srilekha fails to understand how her husband actually enjoys the senseless 'raps' which do not rhyme and the 'noise' which is actually music to him. Sanjoy fails to understand how can someone of his generation can enjoy rabindrasangeet and ghazals which makes him yawn and fall asleep. Sanjoy feels irritated at Srilekha's absent mindedness and her carelessness. Srilekha gets irritated at Sanjoy's finicky nature, his OCD and his attitude of always finding faults. So irrespective of all their differences, Srilekha and Sanjoy share a 'happy married life' ignoring the occasional differences, the bickerings, the arguments and the fights. Thus at the end of a days' work both return under the same roof, share a cup of tea and share each other's experiences of the day.

On thursday afternoon Srilekha calls up Sanjoy in office, " Lets go for the movie Shaadi ke Side Effects on friday after office, the promos seem interesting". Sanjoy replies " Lets go on saturday". Srilekha says "Agreed". Sanjoy books the tickets for the 6p.m show on saturday evening, 1st March. After a sumptuous weekend lunch, Srilekha and Sanjoy reach the multiplex hoping to enjoy a good laugh on the marital side effects having experienced side effects themselves. Sanjoy walks up to the booking counter , goes to the kiosk and types his booking id. Unfortunately the screen shows "error". Sanjoy types the booking id again, the screen again flashes "error". Sanjoy goes to the man sitting at the counter and tells him the booking number. The man prints his ticket and gives him. By now Srilekha is restless, she does not want to miss the beginning part of the movie as they usually do when they go for other movies. Srilekha and Sanjoy usually reach late for all movies and miss out the 'beginnings'. But they are blessed by lady fortune , this time they have reached on time, rather they have reached 5 mins early. Sanjoy and Srilekha walk to their seats but to their utter surprise two people are already seated on their seats. Sanjoy and Srilekha are flabbergasted, the same seats have been allotted to different people, 'how can they do this???? The cheeky young 20 something guy seated in their seats asks "which movie have you come for?  Srilekha retorts" Shaadi ke Side Effects". Sanjoy goes to the multiplex manager with his ticket, Srilekha is clueless as to what is happening. Sanjoy is sweating profusely. The manager looks  closely at the ticket and replies with an expressionless face " Your ticket is booked for 28th Feb, friday and it is 1st March today, your ticket was booked for yesterday and you have missed the show". Srilekha could not believe her ears. She could not believe that the ever so careful Sanjoy who always double checks before booking tickets had actually booked the tickets for friday evening while all the while they had been under the impression that the tickets were booked for saturday evening. So do Srilekha and Sanjoy start fighting, start blaming each other..they do none. The manager is kind , he arranges two seats for them in the first row. Sanjoy complains about the seat, the inconvenience of sitting in the first row, complains about the fact that he had so carefully chosen two very good seats. Sanjoy had never before watched a movie from the first row. Srilekha had however watched movies from the front row during her college days. Srilekha , happy over the fact that atleast they will not have to miss the movie consoles Sanjoy saying, "it is so convenient to sit in the first row, you can stretch your legs as much as you want without the person in the row ahead, complaining. Srilekha jokes" the good students in the class sit in the first row after all and it is a lesson learnt after all, you will never make the same mistake while booking flight tickets atleast". Lesson learnt , Srilekha and Sanjoy smile at each other and get engrossed in watching the marital side effects. having already experienced quite a few marital side effects themselves. Srilekha discovers a new marital side effect and realizes a fact that when your husband is booking a movie ticket you should always double check because husbands are after all very poor with dates whether they are birthdays, anniversaries or something as trivial as buying tickets for a movie show.