When elders from a Punjab village went to a movie theatre the first time in their lives!

This Tuesday, it was an experience of a life time for an eighty-year-old Gurdiyal Kaur from Kila Raipur village as she watched a movie in a cinema for the first time in her life. She had never imagined that a screen could be so grand and even got a bit scared as the movie started. But, as the show came to an end, she couldn’t stop sharing her excitement.

Youth Sports Club (YSC) of the village collected donations from amongst themselves and took hundreds of elders like her for a movie show in one of the city malls.

Talking to HT, Paramjit Singh Grewal who heads YSC shared that club members came up with this idea just a few days back.

“It all began with a discussion on movies where one member said that there are many in the village especially the elderly who have never been to a cinema ever in their life. We decided to plan a movie show for the elderly, announced it in the village saaths (groups of elderly villagers) and went door-to-door to request them to be a part of this plan for which we arranged two buses and some cars,” said Grewal.

Joining him, another club member Dilpreet Singh Grewal underlined, “Above all, to ensure they don’t get bored, we booked tickets for a religious film, ‘Chaar Sahibzaade–The rise of Banda Singh Bahadur’ that kept them fully engaged and to accommodate all, we had booked the entire cinema. But, more than the film, they were excited to be in the multiplex hall as for majority of them, it was their maiden cinema experience.”

Kulwinder Singh, a septuagenarian who was part of the same show expressed that he had never thought that he will go a cinema and went on to thank the club members for their effort. “I feel we are lucky to have such youngsters in our village who didn’t take a single penny instead spent from their own pockets to give us such a wonderful experience,” said Singh who did not forget to appreciate the choice of the movie too.

Similarly, Surjeet Singh, 62, echoed, “We also got a break from the mundane routine of our lives. None of us will ever forget the journey on bus and how these youngsters came right at our doors to invite us and we will go on to share this experience for many days to come”.

65-year-old Mukhtiar Singh said, “I got scared as the lights went off and movie started. The screen seemed so big and we wondered as to how can a screen be so big? As we reached home, our grand children were all curious to know about it all and posed many a questions.”

Meanwhile, referring to several other noble acts and efforts of the club members, the village elders said that the politicians should draw some inspiration from them.