Escape the heat, not the drams

This is from just over a week ago, and I had it in the drafts..so not to confuse you on where we are {Manali}, this is about Delhi.

Yesterday dreamman and I decided to take a break from the madness of Delhi and go to see a movie. Our only option was Wanted, the new Angelia Jolie flick, which neither of use really cared to see but we went anyways.

We too a 1/2 hour rickshaw ride after the regular battle over how much we would pay, and got to the theatre with just enough time to get tickets before the show. There were roped off lines to purchase tickets, and here is where the drama begins!!

As I am sure you all must know by know, India is chaos, and lines are non existent. To get a train ticket, use the bathroom, order at a food stand, pay at a corner shop, there is no line. There instead, is a pushy horde of people all side stepping each other to be next. It makes no difference if you have been standing behind the person at the front of the "line" and have been there the longest...someone will always cut you. We have gotten pretty good at the hip check and nasty glare to hold our position!

Now, at the movie theatre, we were more than pleased to see a roped off line, that people were actually standing in and waiting their turn!! We filed in and took a breath of relief, to finally be dealing with decent sensibility's! Well, that breath was taken too soon. Before we knew it, "cool guy" Indian boys on date night trying to impress their jeans wearing girlfriends started walking right up next to the rope, outside the line,leaning in over the actual person in the front of the line, and purchasing their tickets ahead of everyone. And get this...the most crazy part of this nonsense is that the teller behind the desk serviced the cutting cool guy first!!!!! As if that was tolerable behavior. Ughhh India..

After many more cut ins, and finally getting our tickets we headed for the doors inside. Apparently in Delhi, if you plan on going to the movies you also have to go through a security tighter than at the airport. First everyone has to walk through the metal detector box, then the girls are shuffled off behind a curtain to be searched by a female, and the guys get the same, only not behind a curtain by a male.

I apprehensively went behind the curtain, knowing this would be a dramatic moment. First I got the frisk from one of the girls. This was no ordinary pat down, she literally smeared my body with her little hands, as if I could have had any bad thing on me. I looked at her, and said not jokingly " well that was invasive" and in return she just chuckled. After getting felt up by that one, I then had to hand over my purse to be pratically turned inside out by another girl. I stood there as she rifled through my bag pulling out all sorts of stuff I was "not allowed" to bring in. Of these items were a camera, gum, bug repellent, and sunscreen. She also kept asking if I had cigarettes, matches or a lighter, because those weren't allowed either. I looked at her all crazy, and said, "I just got felt up, and you went though my whole bag..NO, I do not have anything else on me!" She then said, "OK you cannot take this stuff in" I then picked up all my stuff, looked at her like she was fool, put it all back in my bag and said "yeah, ok" as I walked right back over to Jonathan. I was not going to let those to foolish girls tell me I was not seeing the movie we already paid for.

Jonathan was also having a hard time, as he had a camera in his pocket as well, and was told to leave it outside if he wanted to watch the movie. UMMMMM....What??!?!! Leave it outside??!! What is wrong with these people. So I started to make a fuss...a big one at that. This is something Indians do not like. They don't want confrontation, and they don't want their establishment to look bad. At that moment we were very briskly ushered to the side by one of the "guards". All this guy knew about was Jonathan's camera, since I had just put all my stuff back in my purse, and I had no intention of telling him!!. He then gave us the rigmarole of how in this theatre they do not allow cameras inside, and unless we left it outside we would not be allowed to go into the movie. Well....that was just not going to work for me. This is where I stepped forward, leaned down to read his name tag, addressed him in a stern tone, and told him that we had paid a rickshaw to get all the way out here, had paid for the movie tickets, and that we WERE going to see this movie. I think I frightened him, and he agreed to hold our camera for us, and that we could retrieve it from him at the end of the movie. I used his name again, and said "Ok..I will find YOU after the film. We handed over the camera, and strolled into the theater with my purse full of everything else. Fools.

So of all the items you are not allowed to bring inside, your phone is not one of them. Peoples phones were going off like crazy throughout the whole film. Not only that, but people were also answering them and carrying on conversatsions!!! The girl next to us answered her phone 4 times!!!! 4 times!!!!!! Until Jonathan actually had to tell her to quit it, and gave her the dirtiest look. What is wrong with these people?!?!?!!??!!

The saga continues. After the film was over, of course we had to exit out a door that lead outside. We then had to walk around the building to go back to the front so that we could retrieve our camera. No big deal you may think...wrong. We were then expected to go back through security, which I openly refused, and walked right past those stupid girls trying to wave me in to the booth. Were they kidding me?!?!?!?! We then had to sit and wait, because of course the guy who was holding our camera was nowhere to be found. After about 15 minutes, someone came up with our camera, and without a thank you we stormed out of there.

Moral of the story...there is no escape in Delhi. Not even the refuge of a thing as common as a movie theatre.