Ride on Time

Chapter 100

Devi was shocked when the three of them barged into the house in the midst of her serial break.
"What happened? What's wrong?" Devi asked in Tamil. Then she spotted Mitsuo behind them. "Come in, come in! Aiseh, got no food also."
"Obaasan, it's fine," Mitsuo chuckled. "I've been eating the whole day."
"What you ate?" Devi asked, placing the water bottle she had been holding on the ground.
"Never mind that, go get ready, Awah," Shree grinned. "We're going for a movie after this."
"Movie ah? What movie?"
"Some Malaysian movie," Shree quickly said. "I forgot the name, but it looked funny. Go get ready, it's starting at seven."
"Where's Mom?" Vasu asked, seeing no signs of her despite her car being parked on the porch.
"Bathing," Devi said, getting up from her armchair. "I go change first lah."
Vasu leaned towards his sister. "Did she bathe?"
Shree firmly shook her head. "I don't think so." She smirked. "I itself never bathe yet."
Vasu looked at her in surprise and shook his head. His gaze then fell on Mitsuo as he wondered if he had at least taken a shower that morning. It seemed like he was the only one that actually did so before school.

The five of them filed into the Volkswagen Arteon and went straight to the Jaya Shopping Centre. Chandrika parked in the basement parking lot and they got out, making their way towards the lift lobby to go up to the fifth floor, where the theatre was situated.
"What's the name of the movie?" Chandrika asked.
Shree frowned slightly, not really sure how to pronounce the name, and pointed at the poster displayed on the screen. "That one."
"Oh..." Chandrika nodded. "What is it? Thai?"
"Yeah, but it's a Malaysian movie," Shree said. "Tamil movie."
"Tamil movie ah?" Devi piped up suddenly. "Then how this feller will understand?"
Mitsuo actually seconded to that, even though he watched a lot of other Tamil movies. "Yeah, I can't understand that much, only a few words. Does it have subtitles?"
Shree gingerly checked her phone and lit up. "Got! English, and Chinese subtitles."
"Okay lah, that means," Devi nodded. "You can read Chinese also, right?"
"Not much, but yes I can," Mitsuo nodded. "Kanji."
Chandrika chuckled. "Do you know what kanji means in Tamil? Like the word kanji has a different meaning in Tamil."
"What is it?" Mitsuo questioned, hoping it wasn't a curse word.
"It means... congee," Shree chuckled. "Like porridge. I think congee also come from Tamil, right?"
"Yes," Devi nodded.
"Also, Kanji means starch in Malay," Vasu added with a grin.
"Oh so kanji is food in other languages," Mitsuo nodded understandingly. "You guys must find the word very amusing."
Shree chuckled. "Let's go get popcorn."
She and her mother made their way to the snack counter to get drinks and popcorn for everyone.
"So what you all did today?" Chandrika asked as they walked towards the counter.
"First we went to Le Theodore, you should know since you're the one who dropped me," Shree began. "Then we went to the kopitiam in Old Town." Then she gasped as she remembered something. "Oh! And you know Sherry's son? He's a Grape driver! Here, in PJ!"
"In PJ?" Chandrika asked, confused. "Why he driving in PJ?"
Shree simply shrugged. "Who knows. Anyway, we had fun bullying him, especially since he was reading Mitsuo's book. Maximum kutuk."
"Then?"
Shree laughed, stopping at the counter. "Mitsuo one more, bully him worse since that feller almost accused his book of being dirty. Mitsuo didn't like that." She frowned as she tried to remember what else they did. "Then we went and bought taufufah, then I came home, gave Awah the taufu, took car to Taman Jaya and ate the taufufah with Mitsuo. Then we went to PJ Museum in Taman Jaya itself."
The conversation had to take a break since the theatre staff appeared behind the counter and asked what they wanted to have.
"Then?" Chandrika turned to her daughter as soon as she paid.
"We went to pick up Vasu. We had to go to phone shop since his phone broke."
"Aiyo! Okay ah his phone?"
"Repair already lah, Mom," Shree chuckled. She turned to look at her brother and found him playing with said phone. "There, he using and sitting now."
"Oh okay..."
"After that, three of us went to the Japanese restaurant in AmCorp and had lunch, then bought books, then now here lah," Shree finished. "So yeah. Long day, right?"
Chandrika nodded. "Mitsuo leaving tomorrow is it?"
Shree shook her head. "No, Thursday. Friday got one festival, it seems. That's why he wanna go back before that."
Chandrika nodded as she helped her daughter carry the snacks and drinks to the others.
"Let's go," Shree said, motioning for the rest to go up the escalator.
"Wait, theatre open already or not?" Devi asked, her eyes on the screen. "What number?"
"Seven," Shree said, motioning towards the screen. "There, open already. Come lah."
They stepped onto the escalator and went straight to the next floor. A woman walked ahead of them and for some reason, Shree kept pointing at the lady, whispering something to her mother who kept nodding.
"Do you guys know that lady?" Mitsuo ended up asking out of curiosity.
Shree grinned. "She's Sailajah, a celebrity! A YouTuber that stars in ads and short movies!"
"Come lah, we go take selfie with her," Chandrika urged.
Shree immediately shook her head. "Don't want, don't want. See, she look so grumpy."
Mitsuo frowned and started speed walking towards the famous woman before any one of them could stop him.
"Mitsu!" Shree whisper-shouted before groaning as she realised that there was no stopping him.
Mitsuo went straight to Sailajah and blocked her path. "Hi, Madam, are you a famous YouTuber who stars in commercials?"
Sailajah nodded, not really sure what to expect. Mitsuo bowed and went on. "My friend over there recognised you but was much too scared to speak to you."
Sailajah turned to look at the rest and Mitsuo pointed Shree out. "It's the young lady with the long hair."
"Oh," the celebrity smiled as she went towards Shree. "Are you a fan?"
Shree quickly nodded. "Yes! I recognised you from the Deepavali ads, short films."
"Tea ad," Devi added with a smirk.
"Beer," Vasu snorted.
Sailajah nodded with a smile.
"Can take selfie?" Chandrika took the opportunity.
"Can," Sailajah smiled.
Of course, she had to pull her daughter and Mitsuo in too. Eventually, Devi and Vasu did too. Well, Sailajah didn't look like she minded since she even laughed at the amount of people who wanted to join the picture.
They profusely thanked her and entered the seventh theatre to watch the movie.

And at last, they brought Mitsuo to a chapatti restaurant for dinner. Thing is, it seemed like even they were here for the first time, not just him.
"What is this lah?" Shree asked, putting her menu down and pointing something. "What's this? Aloo Tikki?"
"I'm trying to look it up right now," Vasu frowned, his fingers vigorously tapping his phone's keyboard. "It's apparently a cutlet, but potato."
"Oh..." Shree nodded. "Potato only or with chicken?"
"Vegetable?" Vasu said, reading on his phone. "I'm... I'm not sure."
"Just order something lah," Devi hissed.
"What? Dahi Batata Puri?" Chandrika piped up from behind her menu, eventually laying it down to reveal her confused face. "What is this lah?"
"I only know puri," Shree sighed. "Batata Puri, I don't know." She groaned. "Seriously, this is worse than ordering Japanese food!"
"If you don't mind me asking, are you guys really Indian?" Mitsuo suddenly chimed in. They gave him surprised looks as if to demand an explanation. "No, no, I mean, you guys have no clue of the food when you guys are Indian too. I was thinking maybe you guys weren't Indian after all, just Hindu."
"This is North Indian food, Mitsu," Shree explained. "We're of Southern descent."
Mitsuo didn't see how they still didn't recognise the food. "The food's different?"
"Yes!" All four of them echoed at once.
"Northern food is less spicy, they use more milk in their food," Devi explained. "South Indian food more spicy. And North people eat a lot of roti, southern eat rice more."
The others pointed at her in agreement and nodded to Mitsuo.
"That's why northern curry is lighter in colour," Shree added. "Southern curry is darker."
"Also, northerners love paneer," Vasu added next. "That's cottage cheese."
"This one," Chandrika pushed her menu towards Mitsuo. "Palak Paneer. I'm not sure what palak is..." 
They eventually ordered some chapatti, even taking one serving of biryani to share. They were glad they only ordered biryani for one since they were so full and would definitely have not managed one serving per person.

Ironic, isn't it? AmCorp Mall having a theatre in the old days while Jaya didn't, and now Jaya has one while AmCorp doesn't. How times have changed...