SPACE SAFARI

 HELLO

I sincerely apologize for not posting last week. It was my school’s fault (and maybe a smidge of my laziness), but I promise I won’t skip my weekly posts again—at least not without an excuse that sounds better than “I was binge-watching cat videos.”

It’s been two weeks since the Mid-term exams ended. On that glorious Thursday evening, I came home feeling like I just survived a zombie apocalypse—extremely happy yet thoroughly exhausted. I plopped down on the couch, picked up *Atomic Habits* by James Clear, and started reading with the kind of satisfaction usually reserved for finishing an entire pizza alone. It had been two weeks since I could read freely, thanks to those ghastly exams. I was halfway through wondering how ancient James Clear must be when my grandma—whom I affectionately call Mamama—interrupted my deep thoughts about habit-forming with a delightful, “You have this Space Safari or something on Monday!”

I looked at her, baffled. Space Safari? Was I suddenly in an intergalactic reality show? I didn’t sign up for astronaut training; I wanted to cosy up in my room, AC blasting, and binge-read the entire Harry Potter series. And don't need a degree to go to space? That's far too complicated for me to handle. Find some other school to bother Space Safari people “You’re going to the mall cinema to watch some space nonsense. A message popped up in your school group,” she said.

I lazily grabbed Mamama's phone and scanned the long, tedious text from the school. My attention snagged on two magical words: “3D movie.” 

I swear, my eyeballs almost did a dance out of my sockets. “What is it?” whispered the tiny annoyance known as Ru in my ear. “Something, sis. It’s definitely something!”

The ticket fee was just 300 rupees, which was no biggie. I was buzzing with excitement when I waltzed into school on Friday. “Lucky treat after the exams, right?” I told Al, who shrugged like a sassy emoji. “I’ve only been to the cinema once before,” she replied. Meanwhile, she has a TV that could qualify for an antique show—not a Smart TV. So, her idea of movie watching is pretty much limited to reruns of movies made before I was born. 

Finally, the big day arrived. We were summoned from our classes like cattle to the slaughterhouse. “Empty your bags! Only lunch, snacks, and water bottles allowed!” That’s when the panic hit me. I needed to make a bathroom dash, so I asked Al to unpack my bag. I totally forgot to tell her to leave it in my notebook and pencil pouch. So, here I am, narrating this story straight from memory, which, let's be real, is about as reliable as a broken clock.

I bounced with excitement as we boarded the bus. Al snagged the window seat in the third row, and I awkwardly squeezed in next to her. Al was practically GPS with legs, guiding me through the city’s roads while I sat there like an astronaut without a sense of direction. When we finally reached the mall, I took a deep breath. Not every day you get to skip school and watch a 3D movie with your best friend, right? 

The mall was new but clearly struggling. I whispered, “Maybe they just paid the school to bring us here for advertising?” 

Just as I was lost in thought, the eerie silence was shattered by the boys chasing each other, shouting things like, “LAST ONE TO GET TO THE ESCALATOR IS A DAFT CHICKEN!” 

Al turned to me and whispered, “They already are daft chickens.” 

After rounding up the boys, we smoothly glided onto the escalators—well, some of us glided; Al was practically clinging to the handrail like it was a life raft. “What’s going to happen if I talk while the escalator is going down?” I laughed. “Will I get sucked into its hungry, metal jaws?”

“No, of course not,” she said, her cheeks a shade of crimson. “But my shoe got stuck in an elevator once, and let me tell you, it was not a shining moment.”

As we stepped into the cinema lounge, the aroma of popcorn hit us like a delicious brick wall. “No fair, we don’t get any,” Al pouted. Then we entered the theatre, and I was genuinely amazed. This place screamed luxury! There were pillows, soft blankets in cute bags, and buttons on the chairs that made them recline faster than my motivation to do homework.

With my wild imagination, I half-expected the chairs to start serving us snacks as I sank into this cushiony throne. Who knew watching a 3D movie could be this fancy? If only they had a button to launch popcorn straight into my mouth, I’d have found my new life goal!

But my dreams of curling up in those chairs and getting a good snooze were shattered by my over-elongated ears  (like my hopes of ever becoming a morning person), which found a piece of information I truly wish I hadn't known from the teachers' conversation: "The rest are sitting outside. We'll have to get this lot moving soon before they trash the place. The movie theatre must get prepped up fast."

The words hit my brain like a ton of bricks. "Al—Al," I whispered urgently like in a spy movie. She turned to look at me. She was right next to me, her chair reclined to the fullest. She stared at me a little annoyed, "What" she asked sleepily. "This isn't where we are gonna watch the documentary," I whispered. She shrugs, "I kinda saw that coming. This place is definitely not meant for three hundred rupees. I feel like it will go a bit into the thousands" She says.

"Apparently the rest of the students are waiting outside, unlucky them," I remark. Al smiles, "More like lucky us, and we better make the fullest of this room while we're still in it". I nod and curl up again, letting my mind drift to me being a famous author with hundreds of people lined up to get my autograph. But once again, I was pulled out of dreamland. This time by a series of gasps and a few squeals that would make a horror movie jealous. I grudgingly opened my eyes and saw lots of the kids whooping and a few staring at the ceiling with their mouths open as if it was an alien art exhibition. "Ethan threw one of the pillows to the hanging lights. And it's not coming down" I heard some other kids whisper dramatically. I laughed, Ethan is always known to be doing a bunch of idiotic things. "Well," I whispered to Al, "We're never gonna be let inside here again". 

A little while later, the teachers lined all of us up like a regiment of confused ducklings and we walked to the less fancy theatre where we were going to watch the space documentary. On the way there I pointed Al to some ice cream advertisements. And Al accused me of torture. We soon walked in and Al and I sat in the middle row where we got the perfect view. We were handed 3D glasses, and I pretended to act like a movie star from Hollywood. When the opening scene finally arrived, Al was unimpressed. "This feels normal, are we in the right auditorium?"

"Wait my sweet, patience is the key" I smirked. Soon the Space Safari logo appeared as if it was floating in mid-air. I heard Al's jaw hit the floor. She kept on removing and replacing her 3d glasses and I felt something like a proud mother though this was none of my doing. We watched the logos and the thanks to and stuff like that until the documentary finally started. The first scene was of a few kids and their uncle talking and when I heard them I cringed a little. The people's voices have been badly dubbed from Malayalam to English. I heard a few kids complaining in not what you would call soft whispers.

I soon got used to the fact the people's lips were not in sync with their words and continued watching. I had already known most of the facts they were talking about, but the 3D aspect of it was awesome! It actually felt like meteors were coming straight to your face and space crafts were right in front of you. A quarter-way through the movie I saw a few waiters enter the theatre, but what made me so excited that I almost jumped out of my seat in joy, were the amounts of popcorn in their trays. Large cartons, one for each! It felt unreal. Al almost yelled in happiness. We ate popcorn, taking in its saltiness and crunchiness.

Al loved the popcorn, but her stomach got full three-quarters of the way in and she gave the popcorn to me! And soon, people came in with soda! Al couldn't drink it because she had a cold, so that also went to Moi! I felt over the moon! And not just because we were watching a space documentary! And before I knew it, the lights were back on. It took me a few minutes to adjust to the light of the theatre. A man was taking a video of us and asked- sorry, correction- shouted, "DID YOU LIKE THE MOVIE?"

And as the only appropriate response, we yelled back-"YEEEEEES"

And there it went. The whole day in a blink of an eye. We reached our school bus and the teachers told us to eat our lunch right then. Most didn't, because their stomachs were too full with popcorn but me and Al discussed the whole day, ready to gloat to our other friends. We knew, that only our batch had been able to go to the LUX- room, and we were ready to tell everyone all about it.

We reached back on campus and all the children cheered. We arrived ten minutes before the bell rang and I told the audience of Ru, Lily, Beth, Ann and Tia all about it.

I understand that this blog was a bit- how do you say it- lengthy, but this is my way of apologizing for not posting last week. And feel free to tell me your cinema experiences in the comments, I can say confidently that I am the least judgy person I know. 'Til the next story-

BUH-BYE

N.M SIRIUS