A thrilling movie ride to drive out fear

I am not an adventurous person and so prefer to be comfortably placed in my safe cocoon. I don’t venture into any dare-devilry act or accept tough physical challenges. If I had to take any risk it would be very calculative. On the other hand is my best half who is an adrenaline junkie. He loves adventure and tough challenges. My two teens have also inherited his genes. So, many a times I am the black sheep in the family at the various adventure outings and thrill rides.

One such adventurous outing we had recently was at Universal studios Singapore. I was not too excited about the visit because I knew adventurous and thrill rides were the highlight of this park. More on my mind was also the fact that my pushy family would encourage me to try the rides while I as always would try to find excuses. This drama unfolding in my mind was one of the reasons I was not too excited.

The moment we entered Universal Studios, my children and the husband eyed SCI-FI city which had a gigantic roller coaster and the most famous Transformer ride. The Transformer is a thrilling ride based on the movie by the same name. Here you are virtually involved in saving the earth from autobots but  the cutting edge technology makes it feel so real. We had heard about this ride from our friend whom we met the previous day at the hotel. He had warned it was a very frightening ride due to its speed and its special effects and it was nightmarish for him.

My family decided to try this and so we marched towards the queue. I was as usual skeptical about my fear of heights, dark and so decided to keep away. But many young kids and old people marching towards the queue and the constant chants of my family to join the fun, spurred me to take the ride. With fear in my mind, and the words of our friend ringing in my ears I stood in the queue which was in a tunnel where the movies setting with many missiles and autobots where recreated. The setting and the commentary of the movie made my heart race, I was feeling confused and panicky unable to share it with my family who were excited about the ride.

The autobat on which we had to experience the thrill ride was in front of us, we sat in along with two other families completing the 12 member squad in rows of 3. Our harnesses were fixed and there was a ‘voice over’ telling that the fate of humanity hangs and villains are invading to steal some spark( can’t recall now) and that we have been volunteered to protect the spark from stealing and save the planet.

It was totally dark and we were sporting our 3D glasses. I could see nothing for a moment and I was sweating. Suddenly, we were flung into the air and we encounter some monsters which spit fire, we spin,we zip up,  we hang in the air  and suddenly plunge with great speed and another moment crash into a skyscraper. The crash amplifies the sense of speed. It was very scary and at every moment, I was hanging on to my dear life and for a moment I thought I was the battling it all alone in the dark. After a while, the excitement caught on and I was completely absorbed , felt proactive , lost fear and enjoyed the thrill like a seasoned player. I seem to have conquered the fear of the dark or the heights.

I felt everything was so real and perhaps the visual mayhem through the 3D glasses apart from the water, steam and heat effects make it feel hyper-realistic and this is no virtual as I mentioned before.

When the ride ended, I felt I  enjoyed the ride and  had surpassed myself and felt a sense of achievement. Looking back, I want to do that ride again. It was thrilling and not dizzying or scary. I next joined my family in all their adventurous escapades and thrill rides in the park and did not stand out and hold bags.

This was a place where i realized "life begins when fear ends".

This post written for Indi happy hours and Mountain Dew's Rise above fear!

Ammavin aranmanai - A play with a social message

 Every year in December we have a week long concert fest which is iced with two tamil plays  on weekends at Keyes school ground. We have been regular to the plays if not on both days atleast one of the day.

This year too we were seated in the makeshift auditorium of Keyes school  to witness the play of Gurukulam’s ( original boys co. 95) troupe  “Ammavin Aranmanai” (Mother’s palace). Gurukulam to the best of our knowledge is not a popular troupe or atleast we had not heard of it. So, we were skeptical about the play, but thankfully we were not disappointed and I was happy my teens whom we had dragged with us, enjoyed the play.

The play dealt about the migration of people from  joint families in smaller towns and villages towards nuclear families in  cities and other continents. As they moved away some of them lost touch with their roots, culture and some lost their  identity or‘nativity’ too while adapting to their adopted culture.

The plays deals with the  above theme through a family which lives in a village home with its traditional architecture of open courtyard  surrounded by garden of fresh vegetables and flowers.

The sons, daughter, uncles  and their family who live in a flat in a city congregate at the family home for their father’s 80^th birthday and relive the simple pleasures of growing up in a village home and say such simple lifestyles are not possible any more and are no match to their automated lifestyle they lead in cities.  

While the preparations are on for the 80^th birthday, the patriarch  falls  unconscious due to exertion. The son’s and daughter decide to move the parents to the city after the function since the cities afford  best medical facilities.Post the 80^th birthday, when the discussion veers towards moving the parents, the father refuses saying  there  would be nothing called ‘Native culture’ any more if everybody migrates and adapts foreign cultures . The temples which are not just place of worship but treasure trove of culture would be neglected, familial and neighbor hood ties would be fractured in cities. He says it is wise for elders to stay in their native and await the arrival of children to their homes atleast once in a year to visit the family deity and visit the native temples. This will help pass the baton of culture for future generations rather than stay in time-share resorts and home-stays.

The play never sounded preachy although it had a strong social message.  The beautiful  pleasures of growing up when life was not technologically connected  was comically built through lovely dialogues and versatile acting making it a memorable fare.


In short, i could identify with the play since the play's message were so similar to my thoughts which I had posted long ago in  "Connecting to my roots"