Bond

I was in the operation theatre when Jasmine delivered Jispa.  Besides obviously being happy that our child was born, I was so happy that it was a girl. We both wanted a girl. We even had the name in place. But if it were a boy, hmmm that would have been a bit of a tough one.

But you know how dads can get. I always want to bond with my girl on a man to man basis. I’d like to talk to her, explain her stuff, go cycling or swimming with her. Watch action movies with her. But my girl, well she is a girl after all. She hates action movies. So no super hero movies or movies where the bad guy gets thrashed about, smashed into pulp or bullets flying. So I have never been really able to see these movies. I remember many years ago when she was around five years old and die hard part 4 was released. We went to see the movie after she was asleep. Normally I would carry her in my arms and hold her through the movie, while she was fast asleep. This time she woke up and saw some action and I distinctly remember her getting angry at us for getting her to the movie. She started getting angry in the movie hall itself “why did you get me here, why did you get me here?”

Last week, one day she asked me, “how did Spiderman become Spiderman? I heard that some spider bit him or something. Is that true?” Ah yes. I then proceeded to explain to her the legend of the Spiderman. How he was bestowed with special spider sense and then I explained the part about ‘with great power come great responsibility’. Then I asked her, if she wanted to see the part thee (or is it part four) of the movie that was releasing this Friday. “hmmm. I don’t know. But shouldn’t I see part one before”. Well it’s not like they are sequential like harry potter or something. But ya. So we borrowed the first part of the series and watched it at home. She was ok with it. nice and fun, so we went on Sunday for ‘the amazing Spiderman’. Whoops. This one was a bit dark, tough and a lot more gore (blood) in it. I guess after the Batman in the Dark Knight, Hollywood must have thought about dark, confused and complicated superheroes with blood on them would make for more compelling viewing. I mean when was the last time you saw a super hero coming home and covering his bloodied face from his aunt. This is eth first spider man who I have seen who has removed his mask so often and been so bruised. It was like an action blood movie than a superhero movie. Either their target audience has gotten older or the kids can take much more violence these days.  Its rated UA but I strongly feel that families who get their kids for a ‘wholesome’ experience would be a bit rattled by the movie. I think we need a certification that’s between UA and A for this one. I think kids need to be at least 12 to really enjoy this movie. Jispa came out ok from the movie. There were parts she did not want to see for sure. Possibly the boys in her class would be more blood hungry, but it was a bit dark and gory for a 9 year old. After the movie, she was ok. I told her I did not know this would be as bad. She was ok about the whole thing. I finally got her to see a couple of super hero movies. I enjoy them and I secretly hope to see them with my kid. Possibly when she grows up. Anything is good when you compare it to the home alone 3 that she hired to see along with Spiderman 1.

And if that bonding wasn’t enough for the week end, yesterday night, both Jispa and I couldn’t get any sleep. We tried to hit the bed by 9. Jasmine was asleep but Jispa and I struggled. So I snug into her bed and tried reading my book, while she tried sleeping. Didn’t work. So I tried reading while she was reading. Didn’t work. She drank a little milk (wonder of wonders) and I drank milk. Didn’t work. We looked at each other for around an hour and then another… still we both were awake and wondering what to do. So we decided to watch a movie. Since we have no cable and our collection of movies ain’t that big, we had little choice. She did not want to see ‘my movies’ and I surely did not want to see ‘her movies’. It then I told her fine, I think the right movie from our collection would be …. Yes. I got it. ‘do aankhen baarah haat’ (two eyes twelve hands). This is an old black and white movie, I told her. I had seen it as a kid, about your age or a couple of years older possibly. And it was a nice movie. So Jispa and I were watching this 1957 movie about a jailor who is trying to take 6 hardened criminals and reform them by giving them freedom and taking them out of a jail set up to an open ground without encumbrances.  It was nice movie and the prayer song from that movie never left me.

I had to keep explaining the story and its nuances to Jispa from time to time.  The premise of the story, why he taking them to a free place, why is he breaking the fences and that he is giving them their murder weapons as tools to work with. The music score and the over acting of the cast is worth watching and is so different from the cinema of today. Jispa found it amusing and then even remarked “these black and white movies are quite nice and fun to watch”.

So yesterday we watched around 55 minutes of the movie till I felt sleepy and it was around 12 midnight. We promised to complete it later.

This was a lot of bonding for one weekend. But yes, I am not complaining.