Physics was never a favorite subject but it was passably interesting in high school. But concepts continued to become more abstract and introduction to the Theory of Relativity hastened the demise of my interest in the subject. In college, physics lectures routinely fell in the OHT (Over head transmission) category. Even as one of my closest friends dreamt fondly of resistors, I resisted the subject’s non-existent charms. This perhaps explains why I empathized with my aunt as she slept during Deepak Chopra’s lecture; we had worked so hard to get tickets! His leveraging quantum physics to explain meditation techniques was OHT for many in the audience. I gave up reading his books. I was done with physics. God laughed.

A couple of years ago, one night in Goa, I stayed up watching the movie, Doctor Strange. The kids had selected the movie but the saga of the good doctor stepping through multiple universes or ‘multiverse’, did not hold their interest. Though I did not find it entertaining either, I understood the story.

Not so last evening when I watched the latest Oscar winner – Everything Everywhere All at Once. Too many things happen simultaneously in different universes. The limitlessness of the universe was talked about much and I felt small in more ways than one. For someone often not up to the task of making sense of ordinary things and people in this universe, doing so for multiple worlds was too much. It was not entertaining being far too reminiscent of boring Physics lectures in college. Forget everything, I understood nothing nowhere in the movie.

No longer will I mock the ‘simplistic’ choices of my family and friends as they decide on their entertainment. To each his/ her own. I shall not be judgmental whether they watch ‘All the Best‘ or ‘No Entry‘. To atone for my earlier supercilious attitude, I shall go to the theatre to watch Pathaan and drool over SRK. That is how much watching the latest Oscar winner has impacted me!