Yesterday we all sat down to watch a Family movie together on Christmas eve. We had not done that for a very long time. We knew we all did not have the same movie tastes anymore but the fact that everyone had their computer and their own Netflix profile… our movie tastes do not usually collide or conflict with each others. So we decided to find one that would suit us all.
So we first did the internet ritual; we started with a selfie of all of us and posted it on Facebook so friends would know what we are up to…. It is trending with likes even this morning…
So the general consensus was to watch a christmas movie and we decided on some Family reunion movie that is always fun for all ages…. We landed on one and started it…. but was cut short by a love making scene few minutes into the movie…. The movie was PG-13 and our son is 7 and daughter 15 and honestly there was discomfort for me and my wife to watch a sex scene in front of the kids. though I guess kids were ok, they grow up fast….
The next search was a very interesting French movie by Jean Reno which I figured was a wonderful movie and it was about cooking and restaurant and chefs… since both kids loved watching the food network and I liked French movie and my wife loved Jean Reno we locked our choice on that… But foreign movies where you do not know the language you need to juggle between the movie and the subtitle… add the family fun in between you cannot watch the movie properly… so there went another movie to our “watch for later’ list.
The next was a comedy… a rather dumb early nineties comedy movie; again PG13 and since the 7 year old is always interested in the subtitle reading… he was served with a ‘F’ word ten minutes into the movie and another movie was struck off the list…
Then finally we took a nineties Bollywood comedy movie that was a cult classic of those times…. ten minutes into it our enthusiasm was gone due to the overacting which was so irritating… some movies do not pass the test of time… so that ended our Bollywood choice as well…
What was left was an Action movie or an a animation but it was already 11:45.. we did not realize that this whole process took close to 2 hours…. and if we wait for 15 minutes we could open the presents… but then I remembered that kids often sleep very late and opening presents in the morning will be a good way to get them up from their bed in the morning and so I said “Let us sleep, we should not open presents at night, let us sleep now and then open presents in the morning”
We all went to sleep after a cozy family movie time, tasting 4 different movies and not watching even one fully. But we spent some good time together.. In one way it was more fun than watching one movie fully… Also we did not prolong our search for consensus in movies and turn it into a bitter internal feud. Thanks for Netflix that we are able to just search and spend time together even if we did not watch.
It is 8:18 AM on Christmas Eve as I write this…. Kids are still asleep and the presents are waiting to be opened
Neruda and our six year old 
Vinod Narayan 
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