The other day, I went to a Telugu movie in on of the inane suburbs of Boston. It was a inconspicuos small town movie hall. Was surprised at the turn out, a good 500 people turned up to watch this new release. The hero was the new heart throb of the telugu crowd and the leading girl, a cute upcoming NRI girl. It has been a while since I had watched a Telugu movie, honeslty, was never a big fan of these commercial movies, but enjoyed the simple fun of going to the movies in my college. I remember the first day in my college, I was hoping to attend my first Biochemistry class, got ready to leave the hostel. Suddenly one of the final year guys turned up in my room. I had never met this guy, he asked me what I was getting ready for. I said meekly, " Biochemistry class". He said, " Okay, lets go together". I was a bit nervous; regardless, I obeyed like a lamb and followed him. Soon  three other friends of his joined us and we started walking from the hostel. I realised we were walking towards the town instead of the college. I dare not ask these people were they were heading, after all they were the FINAL YEAR students. I just kept walking with them. They were chatting away and were asking a few questions about myself. Finally we reached the town centre. Then suddenly one of them asked me, " Don`t you wanna know where we are going?". I simply said "yes, where?". He answered, to a new release movie. I was shocked, I had till that point in my life never left a class to watch a movie. Well there it started and then over the next five years in med school I hardly missed a new movie. 

So here I was with an old friend of mine from college whom I hadn`t met in a couple of years.  I hadn`t seen this number of Indians gather since I had arrived in the US. It felt good to be in the company of likes. There were people of all ages, families, kids etc. The movies started with the usual gawdy entrance of hero, the crowd erupted with whistles and shouts. It was fun, felt like I was in a theatre in India again. The story was yet again a lift from a Hollywood movies, but the faces were fresh, so I didn`t mind. As with all of these commercial movies there was a comedy track to the movie which was unrelated to the movie theme. It was lewd and at times obnoxious, my friend was laughing away. I kept wondering if something was wrong with me, that I wasn`t finding this comedy funny. Anyway it got to a point where I couldn`t bear it any longer. The chief comedian has a tussle with a destitute on the street, who happens to be the chief of all the 'beggars" in the city. From then on every time the comedian walks on the street he is heckled by a large herd of "beggars". Its not that I was never exposed to the poverty at home, but what hurt me most was the fact that director decides to actually pay destitutes and the disabled from the streets to enact the scene. What was even more saddening was that, the crowd would erupt in roar whenever they would see these "beggars" follow this guy  with a chant. And these were well educated people working the USA. What is wrong with us Indians, why are we so insensistive to these social issues. How can any person perceive this as comedy, when real life destitutes are depicted as objects of fun on the screen. May be I am too sensitive to these issues.Oh, by the way my friend reflected that my threshold of laughter was too high because I wasn`t finding any of this funny. Well, I thought there`s one more thing I need to work on, my sense of humour!!