The first born and I had a discussion about a regional movie she attempted to watch but couldn't go through. It was one of those controversial titles that most other conservative Indian mothers of my generation would let out a scream and close their mouths in shock if they'd discovered their fifteen year old was up for 'watching' it.
I was mildly shocked, none the less, as this child of mine that binge watched Barney not too long ago, is there infront of me, speaking candidly about an R rated feature. I was happy, in the first place, that "if you are hiding something from your mom, it might not be a good thing to begin with" talk really held some steam and we were respecting one another space and freedom while making sure the needed parenting is done with minimal drama.
"So what is it that escaped your grey matter? or were you looking for something else that you didn't find?" I had to ask. Now, I didn't watch the movie in question, but prompty did at my earliest convenience. Except for the title that offered a promise of some titilation,or was named as a click bait, this movie was indeed something I would love for my fifteen year old to watch. I was intrigued by the plot and the 'reading between lines' message it carried, and ofcourse I would assume the metaphorical message laiden in a mass appealing title didn't particulary strike the tender teen mind.
I promised A to watch the title with her and discuss the message the makers were intending to deliver. As I did that we had a talk about 'negative spaces' in art, in literature and life. The ones where the details and the meanings lie, the ones that are obviously into our faces, but we are too tunnel visioned to notice or to learn from their subtle messages.
Reminded me of all the layers of meanings I discovered in the poems of my textbooks back in the day. Art, literature and life have nuances that the busy world misses. Sometimes the shortage of time we have, and our 'busy-ness' extends to our hearts and more importantly, to our visions I suppose.
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