What If You Were Kevin Bacon In ‘Hollow Man’

Read the previous post in the Behind The Scenes series: The Day Sanya Came Alive

One of the premises my book Aymaran Shadow uses is the hypothesis that people change their behavior when they think they can’t be seen. When their actions are shrouded by darkness.

There was one real-life incident that proved that the above premise was closer to reality than hypothesis. This was the time when I had taken off for Goa along with mates of mine. Goa, by the way, is a coastal state in Southern India, and is the hub for year-long partying, water sports, shacking, drugs and sex.

So, we were at this night club, swinging to trance and checking out the place in general (we had gone as stags) when my eyes fell on an odd couple – a young guy and a decked up girl (obviously his girlfriend going by the way she was entwined all over him) gyrating to the pounding music.

Now, at this point, let me say this: this particular nightclub had everything a typical club of its kind would have – strobe lights, professional dancers high up on podiums, laser effects, roving spots, the works. But, one thing stood out – the ambience was pitch dark. Much too dark even by nightclub standards.

Back at the scene, while the guy was obviously enjoying himself and had eyes only for his girl, the girl was merely going through the motions, dancing listlessly and throwing plastic smiles at her guy every now and then. Likely, something else was on her mind.

Half an hour later, I found them on the edge of the dance floor but now dancing a couple of feet apart. Nothing out of the ordinary here, but still, the distance between them was there.

In between, on my trips to the bar counter, I had picked up snatches of conversation between Listless Gal and her girl friend as they had made their way from the powder room or bar counter back to the dance floor. Apparently, Listless Gal was simply plain bored and/or angry with her long-time boyfriend.

Back on the dance floor, ten minutes after I found them on the edge of the dance floor, I found them back in the middle, but now something was horribly wrong. The girl was screaming (yes, amid all that pounding music) and gesticulating wildly at a well-built hunk of a guy, who filled out his party casuals quite nicely and easily dwarfed Listless Gal’s boyfriend.

As I looked on, I realized this was the same guy whom Listless Gal had collided with on purpose a few seconds earlier when she thought no one was looking. Now, she was throwing a fit, making it look like Beefcake was the one who had bumped into her inappropriately.

She then proceeded to instigate her boyfriend (almost taunting him, I thought) against Beefcake. The boyfriend reluctantly got into an argument with a much heftier “rival”. While the two guys got busy mouthing each other off, Listless Gal very visibly decided that she had had enough for the night, and, in a final show of frustration, emptied her drink on Beefcake’s designer shoes and stomped off in a huff.

So far, so good. I mean, how many times have you not seen guys hitting on gals at nightspots and jealous boyfriends taking them on? You can always expect that behind a girl’s indignant exit from a nightspot is a lusty guy’s hand (pun intended). Right?

Well, what I didn’t know hit me in the face half an hour later, when, while exiting the club, I saw the very same girl happily wrapped up in Beefcake’s arms, grinning seductively and teasing him with hungry half-kisses.

Well, what a strange way to pick up a girl at a club, I thought. Or, wait a min, pick up a guy! Yeah, as strange (or not so strange) as it seemed, apparently Listless Gal had been listless for a reason – she had been waiting to dump uncool boyfriend and pick up hot new meat on the street.

Easiest way to do it? Pretend you got elbowed on the dance floor (who’s going to deny a girl when she says a guy used the pitch dark scene to get fresh with her) and pit your uncool guy against object of desire, whip up fight scene, and vamoose, apparently seething at the indignity of it all.

Hook up later with said object of desire when things have cooled otherwise and things have heated up between you and object of desire. How’s that for darkness bringing out the beast within?

This set up the scene (as well as a few other scenes) in my book where Sanya enters her fave watering hole (which happens to be a night club) and attracts unwanted attention. You can read about this in a sneak preview I recently posted.

Although, this scene depicted in the above sneak preview and the real-life incident I shared above play out very differently, they rest on one common theme – people feel comfortable not being themselves (or, being themselves, based on how you look at it) and do stuff that they normally wouldn’t when they think or know that they can’t be seen. Or when they know they are in the dark (literally).

I’m so reminded of Kevin Bacon’s character in Hollow Man, the movie.

Have you witnessed any such incidents? Have you had any such experiences where darkness brought out, perhaps, the best or worst, but, certainly, the unexpected, from people?

Coming soon: the next post in the Behind The Scenes series.