Babel it is!

So a friend and I decide to go to a movie. Planned 3 days in advance. The day arrives. Friend and I figure out the movie theatre, time, plan for dinner and 10.00 pm movie. Babel it is.

I reach the said place at 7.30 pm, approach the movie tickets booking counter. It's one of those fancy, plush, hip new multiplexes. You can pay by credit card. There are 10 screens. The price of the tickets could easily be a meal for two at a fast food joint. Anyway, thankfully the ticket counter is not milling about with movie goers desperately hoping for the gateway to lose themselves in reeldom for 2 hrs. I ask for Babel for 10.00 and also ask about other English movies. Stormbreaker and Dead or Alive are the 2 other movies that are running. One is at 7.55 pm. I shake my head and ask for Babel. 'Not in the front please' I make special mention. Back row.

Tickets slide out of machines nowadays at these fancy places. Not the serrated edges' coupon kinds with date, show timing and seat no. and row clearly written besides the amount. I sign for my credit card, look at the ticket, check for the day, the screen and am ok with it. Fatal mistake one!

Go traipsing down 2 floors to a store, picke up a tee, then to another, browse, wait for friend. It's one of those malls where everything is glitzy and beckoning you to spend, spend, spend. I do. Friend comes, then we head to the restaurant above which also has a separate bar. No tables at the restaurant, but the cover for the bar is not too bad, we head in after paying and being stamped on the writsts like we were convicts. The place is abuzz, like most watering holes in this city , especially on a Friday night. We find there is no table or seats. We stand. We order our drinks and some fries. Everything else is bloody expensive. Disposable incomes, software and IT sure has become hard for the rest of us mere mortals to be able to afford a middle-class lifestyle. We decide to have our dinner at another place after shouting ourselves hoarse to be heard above the cacophony of people babbling, music, television, etc.

We get up, head for the Food Court and have our dinner. Friends asks once again, movie is at 10.00 right? And I confidently say, yes, we have enough time. The theater's just another flight of stairs above.

9.55 pm. We head upstairs. We're let into the theater lobby, we're 'security checked' and then head for the dark confines of the theater. We're directed to our seats. We're settling in. 2 other movie goers then approach us for our seats. We get up and enquire about our seats with the usher. Confusion or fatal mistake 2!

Piece de resistance - the tickets are for a show at 19.55 hrs. I'm agape. I rush to the counter outside and confront the ticket dispenser. He shrugs. My voice rises in anger and frustration and I say I want to speak with the manager. He directs me to him.

I rush across to the young, pleasant looking, calm 'manager' who listens to me. From the way he's listening to me, I know I've lost the case. I feel anger at myself for not having checked the bloody timing. The 'manager' called Jai (I read his name on the lapel badge) takes our tickets, goes across to the ticket counter and is on his cell phone all at the same time. He gets back to us as we follow him with a 'I'm so sorry' demeanour.

"What would you do if you were in my place? Can't you understand that this is a genuine mistake? I couldn't be more clear about wanting to see Babel. This is a mistake, mine and your staff's. I'm not conning you or trying to create a scene. I feel angry at myself for not checking. But we're not all perfect. Can't you do something? Let me sit on the aisles and see the movie? Or issue a new set of tickets for another show the next day?"

I rant. Jai asks me for my number and says he'll try to do something. "I know you're saying that only to make me feel better, because I know you won't do anything. I feel like punching you and punching myself because of this slip up. You can take money from me, I don't care, but you're not making an exception to a genuine mistake."

I walk away. I cry. I feel miserable you see. I've let my friend down too. And I lost money. And I came up a cropper, a fool who thought she was smart. I feel so upset.

The babel in my heart and head is going on about the disappointment, the anger, the entire scene's replay.

I feel stupid. Maybe I will laugh tomorrow about it. But right here, right now, I wish for a happy ending. Manager calling out to me, giving me 2 tickets, refunding my money, anything, something. Hard luck!Sorry Brad, I know I'm the Pitts.

Why do such things happen to genuine people? And it's okay to feel really upset right? So what if it's only a movie?