Finding the Niche.

I finally got around to watching the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel tonight. It usually takes me at least six years to give in to cultural pressure and watch a celebrated movie, but in this case I’m glad I did. It’s a bit predictable in parts, but also very funny and quite uplifting in others. And it even has moments of genuine pathos.

But pathos doesn’t lend itself to one liners; humour does, so let me offer my three favourites:

And what have you been doing today?

Well, I spent the morning giving all the cockroaches names…

I can’t plan that far ahead at my age. I don’t even buy green bananas.

Aren’t you worried about having sex at your age?

No. If she dies, she dies.

But then the group of mismatched people staying at a crumbling hotel somewhere in the exotic vastness of urban India were all about the same generation as me, so maybe it meant more to me than it would to others.

*  *  *

And watching this movie reminded me of a woman called Dominique who used to read my blog in India back in its early days, and who left regular comments. The way she could express subtle nuances of meaning and mood with the minimum of language was quite extraordinary, and I still miss her all these years on.