Kapil

In the year 1990 when I was in 3rd standard my father took me to Chanakya cinema to watch the Batman movie (We used to watch movies a lot together. We watched several Chunky Pandey and Neelam films in later 80s). I loved that movie a lot. May be that is the reason that I like Batman a lot. I used to watch Batman and Robin old series that was aired on television too and I used to drew batman cartoons. I think Batman is still my favorite super hero. I was of course excited to watch that movie, back then watching movies on theater was a big thing, at least for me. We didn't have color television by that time, cable tv had just arrived in India. Doordarshan was the old source of entertainment for us. Watching DD was boring back then, but now we reminisce Doordarshan a lot. I announced in school a week before about this movie watching event. Little kids get excited about these things easily, I was too. Most importantly I was excited to watch an English movie in hall and wanted act cool among my friends that I have seen an English movie in English. Chankya was the only hall in Delhi that used to show international movies.

My father and I went to the cinema in south Delhi on scooter, we had LML vespa. We reached Chankya puri, which is a posh south Delhi area where all the embassies are located. This area is better maintained and general clean as compared to other colonies in Delhi. It was amazing ride from home till there. I still remember watching that movie. The batman movie back then was more fun than dark and that movie was quite funny. The batmobile used to fly in that movie and I still remember the climax scene where batman follows the joker on a tall building. That memory is still clear in my mind. After the movie all I was thinking is to go back home and tell someone about my experience. I wanted to share what all things I saw in the movie. I wanted to tell my friends that I went to this really cool and big cinema hall in south Delhi, but destiny had different things planned for me.

In the evening when I came back home it was not dark yet so I decided to go to Kapil's house who used to live just across the park. We went outside and decided to play something. We had our own games. I wanted to tell him about my experience but he wanted to play first. In that games I was just supposed to catch him and he would run first. So he started running on the streets and I ran after him. He was quite ahead of him when I noticed that he crossed the road and stood on the other side near the petrol pump in A-1 block. He just stood there and prompted me to follow him. I was just standing on the other side and asked him to come back but he did not. Actually I was not allowed to cross the road. I was scared too. So I decided to make him think that I am going back home and thought I will catch him when he come back to my side of the road. So I turned and started going back home. He saw me and attempted to cross the road. He crossed half the road and when he almost crossed the other half I decided to turn back quickly and catch him. When he saw me coming back, instead of crossing the remaining second half of the road, he started running and then suddenly out of no where one ambassador car came and hit him. The car driver already pushed the brakes but could not stop completely. He was hit and he fell on the road in front of the ambassador. He was little unconscious and started crying. The driver of the car came out, picked him and took him to the Bedi's doctor's clinic which was exactly opposite our house. I was witnessing all this and followed the driver from distance. Kapil was crying "Mummy, mummy" and was not in full senses. I was hoping that he is not hurt and frankly I was more scared of what will happen if my parent find out about this incident.

After following the car driver, I just entered my house and tried to listen to his cries. I heard him shouting only "Mummy, mummy" and I was hoping for the best. After sometime the noises stopped coming and I assumed that everything is alright. All this made me forgot about the Batman movie completely and I was sad that I had no one to share. Later that day my cousin brother Pappu bhayia came to our house and I told him about the movie. He is around 16 years elder than me and probably didn't take lot of interest in what I was saying but anyways listened to me.

I did not tell anyone in the family about Kapil's accident. My mother came to know that Kapil is not well and went to his house to check him and there Kapil told my mother that "Ravi was running with me", that was his statement. Later that day I received lot of beating from both my mother and father. Nobody believed me that I was innocent and it was not my fault. I was not running on the road!, I shouted to everyone but all in vain. Kapil and I are still friends and but I still have not forgiven him for that. I received lot of rant from family, friends, tution aunty and my teachers for that lie. Everyone scolded me that I was responsible for Kapil's accident, I was frowned upon by society, but that was long time ago and I got over it. He was intelligent, used to get good marks and everyone liked him and believed him.

We all have certain important events in our life that kind of change the course of your life journey. These two incidents Batman movie and Kapil's accident both happened on the same day and I learned something very important that day. The lesson was that there will be times when people will not believe in you but should not feel bad and always believe that you are the best in the world. I became little more stronger when I came out of this and by that time the next Batman movie was already out and it was not that great ;)

I am writing about my memories from my childhood and early life. I am doing it because I want to. You can follow this page to find links to the new blogs that I will write about my life. Click here to find previous blogs related to my life memories.