Humbled

It was a very strange feeling sometime back. I was driving in the evening and at a usual red light, on a usual crossing, saw a very usual sight. Street 'unprivileged' Kids selling 'stuff' to us, the privileged ones. People shooing them away and the kids coming back with a stronger argument or their 'uncle please le lo na', 'aapki jodi bani rahe bhaiya', 'Didi aap le lo' etc etc. And then the prospective buyers just simply ignoring them, as if they dont exist, acting as if they have just developed a hearing problem and cant listen to them. But then i saw something unusual(to me atleast).

Amongst those kids, i saw this one kid about 12 years old selling pens with an inbuilt torch. The 'difference' was not about the uniqueness of the product promotion he was doing or the product itself. Butthere was a small thing which i noticed. The kid was in his school uniform with a bag on his shoulders. Within a second, i realized that the kid goes to the school in the afternoon and then sells these pens at this crossing.

Suddenly i could feel the whole weight of HIS bag on MY shoulders. Here I am who is never satisfied what he has. Someone who wants more and more and more and there is this kid, who despite all his troubles and problems is carrying the weight of the absence of a silver spoon in his mouth and doing whatever he can do in order to make a living for himself and may be his family.

All our life, we keep cribbing about stuff. We don have this, We dont have that. I deserve this but i cant have it. My friend has got a promotion and I havent. THAT guy drives a BMW at 25 and i drive an XYZ. Blah Blah Blah... Comparisons. and Cribbing have become a cornerstone of our lives. Being Ambitious is one thing but not living in the moment and only worrying about the future is other. The cliche of the glass being half full or half empty is so valid in this case.

Whenever i am in my car, on one hand i see a swanky new 7 Series and say darn.. Why cant have it NOW??? Why do i need to wait for say 15 years to get one for me??? and then i look the other way and see a family of 4 trying to fit themselves on a scooter or a motorcycle with one kid on the fuel tank, the other one in the mother's lap and father struggling to maintain his balance. Add to that the 40 degree temperature of Delhi.

Most of us complain that there is so much traffic on the roads in the evening and it takes me an hour to reach back home etc etc. But how many of us can even imagine how difficult it is to undergo the same journey in a bus.

I know i am sounding like an NGO worker and there is nothing that i am trying to preach too. It is just that i suddenly feel too humbled and lucky to be where I am. I think most of the cribbings in life can go away when we just look around and realized that life is not always like a bed of roses for 99% of the people of the world. We just have been lucky to have born in the families that we belong to and we cant thank God enough, for what we have. Just be thankful to Him for the tiny little comforts that he has bestowed us with and life will be that much more fun. Remember: Life is just the same, it depends on which perspective we want to see it from.

Defiance

"Our Revenge is to LIVE". This one dialogue describes Defiance to the core. The movie is about struggle and war but more than that, its a tale of survival, resistance and retaliation.

Its a True story of 1200 survivors, whose new generations spans tens of thousands people, who spent almost 2 and a half years in a forest in belarus post world war 2.

I dont know what is it that makes War movies great. Although Defiance is not in the same league as the finest, It still makes a mark and leaves you feeling for the families. Step by Step you start loving the 3 Bielski brothers (The leading one being Daniel Craig).

Performance wise, Daniel Craig, who portrays a spectrum of emotions from being an angry man who takes the revenge of his dead parents in cold blood, to the leader of the clan whose lone objective is to survive and to help others live.

But, i think the script overpowers the direction. The narrative and the story itself is so strong that you wish that the director takes the story in a different plain altogether, which just doesnt happen.

"We Jews are only good at dying". The words seem so tragic and hit just the right chord with the audience and thats where the movie scores. Overall a good movie worth a watch but not in the same league as Schindler's List. But i think the comparison itself is not fair.