The Platform He Reached Too Late

 Hi… I am Ayaan.

And last Sunday, I watched a movie I would have never watched.

The movie had no promotions. No ads. No reels about it. Just a review I stumbled across on You-tube. Something about it felt different. So without thinking too much, I booked the ticket and went alone.

I expected just another retelling of Lord Krishna's story. Maybe visually grand and nostalgic. Something like the television serials we all grew up watching — familiar, comforting, already known before it begins.

What I experienced was something else entirely.  The moment the film began, it stopped feeling like a movie.

It felt like I had somehow stepped into another time.

Every frame felt alive. The visuals, the music, the silence between scenes — everything carried a sincerity that I wasn't prepared for. For those few hours, the world outside simply disappeared. I wasn't sitting in a cinema hall in Bangalore. I was somewhere else completely. And somewhere between those scenes, something shifted inside me. 

Every person in that world was carrying something. A promise. A pain. A duty. A sacrifice. A war they never asked for. Nobody was spared. Not kings. Not warriors. Not mothers. Not Krishna himself. Everyone had a role to play. And everyone paid a price for it.

And that — more than anything else — is what stayed with me.

Because we look at people in our daily lives so casually.

"This person is arrogant."

"That colleague is irritating."

"He took my credit."

"She always behaves strangely."

"This manager is impossible."

Corporate life especially trains us to reduce people to their behaviour. To see the reaction and stop there. To judge the surface and never wonder about what's underneath.

But what if every person around us is carrying a Mahabharata of their own — that we know nothing about?

What if the angry one is exhausted?

What if the arrogant one is deeply insecure?

What if the silent one is fighting something they cannot explain to anyone?

We see reactions. We rarely see battles.              

    That film reminded me of something I think we forget too easily. Human beings are complicated long before they become difficult. And maybe understanding that doesn't solve every problem. It doesn't make every difficult person easy. It doesn't mean we accept everything.

But it changes something in the way we look at people.

It softens something inside us.

    Even now, days later, scenes from that film keep replaying in my head. Not just because of the scale or the visuals — though they were extraordinary. But because the characters felt human. Not gods sitting far above us. But beings carrying emotions, responsibilities, heartbreak and impossible choices.

And quietly… it made me reflect on my own life too.

    Maybe all of us are simply trying to survive our own stories while pretending everything is fine. Maybe the person sitting across from you in that meeting tomorrow is doing exactly that. Maybe they deserve a little more patience than you were planning to give them.

I walked into that theatre expecting entertainment. I walked out looking at people differently. I did not expect a movie to do that to me.

But here we are...

— Ayaan | And I am still learning, one unexpected story at a time.

Some people are not difficult. They are just carrying battles we cannot see.

More Dreams To Come…