Growing up in Delhi, mid/late ’90s, and from the same school (DPS, RK Puram) — Saurabh, Raghav, Vishek, and I were besties, who spent some of our happiest days, over at Paras’s, Priya’s, or Chanakya’s. 

The latter were homes, alright. Only, our friends in there were films. Of these, Chanakya’s no more. When the said demise occurred, around 2007, I felt as if a family member had passed on. There’s something humanising about cinemas that sound like people. They seem one of us.