Star Wars and my lola

my lola (whom we call nanay) is turning 93 in september. i am especially proud of the fact that, despite reaching this venerable old age, she is still quite sharp. plus she can be really funny without trying. this usually happens when you expose her to technology.

my sister brought home vcds of star wars episodes 4 through 6. (this was after watching episode 3, not in preparation for. she watched the prequels without having watched the originals. yes, i know. it must be a girl thing.) being some kind of special release, the first cd had a long-ish docu on the making of star wars, complete with george lucas interviews. as my sister had to make a bathroom dash, she hit the pause button on the player and left her seat in front of the tv.

enter nanay. she took my sister's place in front of the tv and looked up at george lucas, frozen in mid-gesticulation. she frowned.

after a couple of minutes, she began to giggle. my mom asked, "bakit po, inay?"

she answered tartly, eyes twinkling, "ano ba itong palabas na ito? ang artista, hindi kumikibo!"*

household full of females bursts into laughter. as you can tell, my lola has yet to become acquainted with a remote control.

the movie begins. after about ten minutes of sweeping galaxy scenes, i begin to wonder if my lola knows that man has been to space. she probably heard about it back when it happened, but that was thirty years ago and i'm not sure if she remembers. or if the concept of space was real to her at all, or if it made sense. she comes from a different time with very different realities.

and all of a sudden, at that moment, my nanay seemed very, very old and very distant.

so after all these shots of deep space, robots and laser-beam fights, nanay started to gather up her paraphernalia (brush, face towel, walker) and hoist herself creakily up from her seat.

"ayaw n'yo na, nanay?" my sister said.

nanay answered, one hand releasing her walker momentarily to give a vague, dismissive wave with her face towel. "hindi ako magandahan."

sorry, george lucas. wala ka sa lola ko.

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another generation gap tidbit, also while watching the star wars vcd.

my tita raquel, 60-something maiden aunt, asks: "ano'ng pinapanood niyo, betamax?"

silence, as the prospect of explaining twenty years of leaps and bounds in video technology pops briefly into our heads.

"oo", my mom answers quickly.

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and in case you're wondering: no. i haven't seen episode 3 yet. i'm waiting for all the people to go away.

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*this is not actually how she said it. i feel like i have to say i'm translating from batangas tagalog. despite living in manila for over two-thirds of her life, my lola never lost the punto. she would say ari instead of ito and nakibo instead of kumikibo. she has never, however, uttered the stereotypical batangueño ala-eh.