After a tiring day, a movie ticket.

Wow! What a Movie Night! It was unbelievable cinematography, brilliant acting. Even during the interval, not for a moment did I feel like leaving my seat to wander outside.

Kantara 2. If only the storyline of Kantara Chapter 2 had been a little better, then this sweet, evening would have easily become my best evening in Dantewada. I can’t even remember the last time I stepped inside a movie theatre. I often saw crowds gathering at Dantewada’s only cinema hall just opposite my current office.But the desire to actually go inside never really happened. Forget planning for the first Saturday of October , I had no plans for the entire month to go watch a movie. But then, if life always followed the exact script we write for it, where would the thrill be?

Today’s evening gifted me a brand new adventure in Dantewada. Good friends can nudge your mind in the right way.Some of you may raise your eyebrows or wrinkle your noses when I say I’ve watched only two movies on the big screen in my entire life.And many might think that my first cinema outing must have been with a girlfriend. But by the time love even considered arriving, my interest in movie halls had already vanished. And just to be clear, I did NOT come to Dantewada to look for a girlfriend, nor was there any love story involved in my movie-going that day.

Kantara didn’t give me romance, only roaring action and goosebumps.Now, you might wonder, if there was no plan, no girlfriend, then how on earth did I end up in Isha Cinema Hall? I know most of you already have that question bubbling in your minds. Well, when things happen suddenly, they either turn out very good or very bad. In my case, there was no room for “bad.”A series of small events joined hands and gently pushed me straight to the ticket counter of Isha Cinema Hall.

It was Saturday. I had planned to enter survey data, study on brinjal and fenugreek plants, and head to Mangaloo-dada’s house in Kutulnaar to help prepare organic pesticides. As planned, Sai-dada came to Binjam around 3:30 PM, and I left with him toward Kutulnaar. But Mangaloo-dada wasn’t home. Disappointed, we went to Kumar-dada’s field. After finishing our work there, when we were about to return, Sai suddenly said:“So we’re going to watch Kantara, right? Everything is set. Me, Yamleshwar, Rameshwar, Jasvinder-dada, Ravi ji… and you. Everyone is coming.”

I was NOT prepared to go.I even said I had a meeting , but Sai-dada simply refused to accept my excuses.To make matters worse, I got a call from Yamleshwar-dada:“Subir, you’re coming with Sai, right? He told us he’s coming to pick you up.”I said NO two times, five times, ten times but both of them were unstoppable.Before I knew it, Sai-dada said,“I’ll stop the bike only in front of the cinema hall.If you want to go home, you’ll have to jump off while it’s moving!”And that’s exactly how I found myself at the theatre gate.

We bought tickets and entered.Ravi ji, Rameshwar ji, Jasvi ji, all of us sat together and enjoyed Kantara’s stunning cinematography.Stories, samosas, tea, and the tempting popcorn smell from the couple sitting in the front row made the 6 PM show even more lively. Mysteries of the forest, the hunt for spices, tribal life, the beginning of agriculture, civilization, the politics of power, fights, the dark magic of older times, all blended into a movie that was not perfect but certainly better than average.By the time it ended, it was already 9 PM.

On the way home, I was thinking Who forces anyone these days?Who checks on someone so lovingly?And when you’re living far from home, in a place so distant, when God sends such friends into your life, you simply cannot say no to them. Unexpected plans, born out of stubborn friendship, often leave the deepest marks in memory. While returning, I felt that it all ended so quickly.Another half an hour together wouldn’t have hurt!Not to enjoy the movie longer, but to enjoy the company longer.

For a boy living alone in a village nearly 1700 km away from home, an evening like this becomes priceless. Sai-dada and Yamleshwar-dada’s stubborn insistence might just be the early seeds of a strong friendship.And like they say, ‘you make your plans, and God makes His own.’ Time sorts everything out.