This old love

Two nights ago, I waited patiently to watch Sleepless in Seattle on TV2. I got all the housework done well before the movie started and at 9.45pm, I took my favourite place on the bed to wait for the movie to air at 10pm. SiS is one of my favourites, and besides, watching the movie is as romantic as I could get on Valentine’s Day, a fate sealed when I married one of the most un-romantic man on earth. DH grumbled on why they were showing the movie again and again. He seemed to remember that I watched the same movie on Valentine’s Day last year. Frankly, I don’t understand his grouchiness, given that we have 3 television sets at home, so he could just choose not to watch the movie, if he so decided. Besides, I never complained about his extended time with Astro and the PS2. Instead of taking it in his stride, my DH decided to stay in the room. He opened the Reader’s Digest and started reading (read: sulking) away. I was not deterred, however. Soon, I immersed myself in the movie. Poor DD was trying to get my attention. She jumped from the stool onto the bed, danced in front of the tele, spilled the contents of the coin box, but I was too absorbed in the movie to care. Now when I think about it, it’s kind of strange, really, that I could watch a movie that I love over and over again. The surprise element is long gone, but the pleasure of watching the story unfolds exactly as you remember it is still there. And there’s the extra details that you didn’t notice before, which makes it even sweeter. The love for reruns is something that I share with a friend. D was my housemate during my student days in London. She absolutely loved reruns and it soon rubbed on the rest of the household. You can imagine how not happening (and poor) we were, that many weekends were spent watching reruns. We would never miss watching shows like Little House on The Prairie and The Cosby Show. When BBC, ITV or Channel 4 couldn’t satisfy our cravings, which happened often, we would make the short walk to the video rental shop (yes, those were the days of videos, I’m that old) down the Leyton High Street. The owner, a Pakistani, was accommodating. He left it go unnoticed that we always returned the videos late. Our favourite video rentals then were Grease and When Harry Met Sally. We could easily ignore the new releases for these two movies. Back at home, we would watch them again and again throughout the weekend. D wrote the lyrics of one of the songs in Grease on a piece of paper, drew little hearts and pasted it on the fridge. She signed her name as Sandra Dee. Such was her love for the movie. On one of her trips home during the summer hols, D remembered to pack two Malay movies, Abang and Azura, a Hari Raya show from back in mid eighties with Jamal Abdillah and Ogy Ahmad Daud singing the track from Azura, and a cerekarama, Pengantin Popular. We watched these endlessly. Our guests suffered too when we made them watch with us. The guys rolled their eyes to show their disgust, but we knew, they enjoyed the shows too. Other Malay movies were Fenomena and Selubung, but I can’t recall whether these were from D’s collection as well. Among them, my favourite was Abang. I just loved it. The acting was simply superb all around. The characters were played by heavy weights like Rahim Razali, Ahmad Yatim, Ahmad Tarmimi Seregar, Noor Kuamalasari and Ogy Ahmad Daud. Despite having watched it many times, I always cried at the end of the movie when Abang died. I wish there are more movies like Abang. After my marriage, I didn’t have much time to indulge. However, occasionally, when the mood strike, I would take out Kuch Kuch Hota Hai or Kabhi Kuchi Kabhi Gham vcds and spend the next three hours in another world, crying my heart out with the characters. By the end of the movie, I end up with red, bulging eyes and a splitting headache. I know it sounds pathetic, but I just love it. However, I haven’t had the time to watch these Hindustani movies after DD came into this world. The other night, as a spite for SiS, DH suggested with sarcasm that I should watch KKHH or K3B instead. Perhaps, I should just take up his offer this weekend and ask him to baby sit DD. Wouldn’t that be marvellous?