At long last, the weekend is here. . . Was thinking of a weekend getaway with my significant other, but dad's visiting tomorrow, which means the trip will have to wait for another sunny day. So to make amends, we decided to hit the cinemas - been eons since we went to the movies.
These days, ticket queues are passe. Get online, choose movie, book tickets and forget it all, except about getting there in time (an ordeal in itself, given Bangalore's traffic). I had another more important reason for booking the ticket online. The other day I got a surprise parcel from ICICI Bank. It turned out to be an "Online Credit Card" which they had "offered me absolutely free of cost" since I was "one among their top 5% valued customers". I had half a mind to ask them what was my "valuation"! But the curiosity to know what this online credit card was, overshadowded other questions, remarks and ripostes.
Finally, it turned out to be just another piece of plastic, but this time without that ubiquitous magnetic strip attached to the back side. Apparently, this is by design rather than accident - the key differentiator between a normal credit card and this online one. This credit card cannot be used in your roadside grocery store or at Shoppers Stop, simply because it cannot be swiped, and that feature makes it "safe and secure", so I am told.
With all the excitement of a kid with a brand new toy in hand, I got online to try it out. What better chance can I get than to use it to buy cinema tickets online - escape standing in those long queues hoping to get to the other end with still tickets left to sell.
Everything goes fine, I book the ticket, got the confirmation code which I promptly and carefully wrote down. And so I surprised my better half when I turned up in front of her office with the ticket, errr..., confirmation code in hand, beaming and telling her that we can be just in time for the film to start and not worry about tickets, set numbers etc.
So we reach the theatre and when I walked past the long queue of impatient, fidgetting people, I had the most satisfied, almost self-effacing smile on my face. My new online card had made me Privileged! No more queues, no wasted time and no uncertainty. I was still looking at the woeful faces of the people in the queue when I reached the person at the counter issuing tickets. "Excuse me, I have two tickets booked online, and this is the code. Can I get the tickets here?" I could sense piercing stares and frowning faces, from right behind me till eternity.
"No Sir. You can go to the kiosk by that side to get the ticket yourself." "Oh, technology is all-permeating", I thought. I went over to the kiosk with a touchscreen to enter details. I was thoroughly impressed and bowled over by the whole thing. I'd seen kiosks in some of the cinema complexes in California but hardly did I dream that in such a short time, we'd get these gizmos right here in
namma Bangaluru.
I breezed through the instructions given on the screen and when, for verification, I was instructed to swipe the credit card. Now what? The technological advancement of my piece of plastic seems to have left the ticket kiosk far behind. I looked around for help. The people in the queue were still staring at me - enviously earlier, but now with more curiosity than anything else.
I went back to the ticket counter. "Exuse me, but there is a problem." And I spent about 5 minutes explaining my plight. I glanced behind and knew for sure that I would have been dead meat, if looks could have killed!
"Just give me some time, Sir. Ramesh,
illi banni." Waiting, waiting, waiting. The gleam on my face, the inflated chest that I had earlier were all gone! One by one, people in the queue got their tickets and left, giving me a final, but this time sympathetic look. "
Bechara, film nahin dekh payega...".
After waiting for what seemed eons, I finally saw "Ramesh" approaching. After explaining the technicalities a second time, he took my online credit card and the confirmation code into his counter. I couldnt help feeling a bit concerned, with the "safe and secure" plastic in the hands of a rank stranger, and my eyes were rooted at this man. To my relief, he soon issued me a couple of normal, good-old, over-the-counter tickets.
By this time, I was doubtful if I'd be able to get to see the film at all, and hence I was quite relieved that the tickets were in my hands and along my short run to the auditorium entrance, a quick glance to my watch revealed that I'd already missed 30 minutes of the movie....
Moral of the story: Technology creates more tantrums than what it solves!
Epilogue: The movie mentioned here is "Rang De Basanti". My takeways from the movie should be the subject of another blog another day! :-)
