THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF MORNINGS IN OUR LIFE
Pic.: Chetna Shetty
I did not know who Philippe Petit was and what relationship he had with WTC twin-towers of NYC. Yes, that was till I watched the movie - ‘The Walk’, last night.
Like millions of citizens of this world,
what has permanently etched in my mind, too, is the horrendous tragedy of 11/09/2001.
The chilling images of terrorists crashing planes into the world’s most famous
towers and the 110-storey towers crumbling down, right before your eyes, like
two pack of cards… yes, like millions of my fellow citizens of this world, I,
too, remember only this! This coup of destruction… Someone, sitting in a far
away corner of this world, had desired to bring down the two mammoth towers… It
was a sinister coup flawlessly – and ruthlessly - executed by some young men!
Surprisingly, no one had, ever, brought
to my notice the story of Philippe Petit, who, too, had hatched a coup, as a twenty-plus
young-boy. He had hatched it, back in his homeland, Paris, sitting in a dentist’s
clinic. While he was reading, there, the story of the under-construction twin-towers,
the calling of his life had come in him: The grand dream to wire-walk between the mighty
towers, soon!
The movie - ‘The Walk’ is the story of Philippe
Petit’s indomitable and eccentric spirit. It is brilliantly played by Joseph
Gordon-Levitt. It is amazing, poetic… breathtaking. Please don’t miss it.
Ironically, Philippe had executed his
coup – by walking between the twin towers eight times – on the early morning of
07/08/1974. The towers were just born then, and Philippe was barely 24. Some
twenty-seven years down the line, another group of young-men had hatched and executed
another kind of coup… yes, to destroy the mighty towers. That, too, was an
early morning!
There are two kinds of young-men in this
world. There are two kinds of coups! And, yes, yes… There are two kinds of
mornings in our life!
GERALD D’CUNHA
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