My Dear Students | Community bonding, and how it has changed in the past 50 years

Cauvery Theatre was a single-screen theatre, which are a rarity in Bengaluru and other metro cities these days. It was one of a kind though, filled with warmth and warm people. The only thing cold was the popcorn packets, but that was also a Cauvery specialty. Given enough time, even stale food becomes part of a hallowed legacy.

People went to Cauvery not only to watch movies, but to watch movies together. It is a funny thing to say but it’s true. Inside the theatre, I did not know anyone apart from my group, and yet we were part of one community, cheering the actors and actresses. Now people are usually distracted either by their mobiles or their children. I was sitting in a mall theatre once, trying to watch Dangal in peace. The nice woman sitting next to me was finding it difficult to manage her kid. In exasperation, she opened a movie on her iPad and gave it to him. I was now privy to two movies, one on the screen in front of me and one playing next to me. I ended up enjoying neither.

At Cauvery, I once watched a Shah Rukh Khan movie in 2004. In those days there was no internet booking. I just landed up at Cauvery and tried to book a ticket. Even though most tickets were sold out, I managed to get one, right in the front of the screen — what they call a Gandhi class. I sat there for three hours with people who had no mobiles to distract them. Cinema was their distraction. We were strangers, but by the end of the movie, we were sharing the snacks each of us had brought to the theatre. After the movie was over, we left, strangers once again. But in those three hours, we had a communal experience that was unforgettable. When I saw the same movie again, twenty years later, on a streaming platform, I wasn’t sure what the fuss was about. Perhaps sharing snacks with complete strangers and laughing together over bad jokes makes movies better.

Not all single screen theatres are the same. I went to one in Gurugram once. I was warned not to by people in the know. But fortified by my experiences in Cauvery, I was not in a mood to listen to better counsel. I trudged to the theatre in deep winter weather in December. The theatre was in some remote part of Gurugram that even the locals tried to avoid. When I reached the theatre, it was misty and dusty in equal measure. Out of the mist emerged a security guard. I asked him if the theatre was open because I did not see any signs of sentient life. He answered in the affirmative and pointed me towards the ticket office. When I reached the ticket office, I realised that the person at
the window was the security guard once again. Apparently cost cutting was in place. After I bought the ticket, I went into the hall. At Cauvery I was used to plush seats. Here they were wooden planks. There were four people in the hall. Three of them looked like they had been released on parole. The fourth was the security guard. I left the hall immediately.

My dear students, every generation has its community engagements that nourishes it. We had single screen cinemas, you will have your ways of bonding with strangers, and hopefully not only on social media. Whatever it is, and however incongruous it sounds, it works. It works even though the whole enterprise might be a farce, propped up entirely by corporate money, greed and jingoism. The previous statement may or may not apply to IPL franchise fans. We need communities like we need air, and for the same reason, we need to live and flourish. But communities need not be of the kind that we are familiar with, i.e., based on politics or family or kinship. It can be communities of strangers and in some ways these communities are even more important in our lives.

These communities cannot serve their purpose online, and need physical proximity. Did you see the crowd outside Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore after the game against CSK a couple of weeks ago? They were cheering in rain for a bus load of cricketers that they could hardly see and a team that hardly wins. That’s community bonding among strangers. I am not sure everyone should try this, perhaps you are more comfortable among acquaintances. But there’s a certain charm about friendship among strangers. I recommend it highly. Perhaps we are most comforted when we find comfort in strangers.

(‘My dear students’, a fortnightly column that is a conversation with young minds on current events, books, popular culture — just about anything that’s worth talking over a cup of coffee.)