Summer of '85 -Part2

(After a frustrating two days of trying to post this rant, i finally discovered that blogger seems to have some sort of word limit on the posts, so here comes the latter half of the Summer of '85 )

Now, to let you into a secret, you wouldn’t find a greater fan of horror movies than my mom. Two decades and more later, she still thrives on them -- a fortnight or so ago, she thoroughly enjoyed watching Darna Zaroori Hai.

So when Poltergeist was released, she immediately summoned Something-Swami. With two kids in tow, she made it to the evening show at Ratna Theatre. This is the one movie that I have not forgotten in a long, long time.

The evening show at Ratna Theatre started at seven and after about an hour and a half, we embarked on the drive home in our rickety jeep.

The scene from my window in the jeep was a perfect setting for an eerie movie – trees lined up on either side of the road and casting long shadows, dim light and no other vehicle in sight as far as the eyes could see. I started shivering.

Tucked in my bed beside my sister, my tender eyes would not close for me to sleep that night. Just outside the bedroom window, the swaying branches of the eucalyptus tree served to remind me of a tree in the movie. The next morning, my parents were shocked to see that I was running fever -- 103 degrees, no less. The fever continued for nearly a week and I refused to sleep in the dark and without my mom next to me. And, dad gave mom a sound warning to refrain from watching ‘stupid’ movies.

I watched Poltergeist on TV recently and was all smiles as it brought back memories of the first time I had seen the movie.