EVERYTHING THAT IS BROKEN CAN BE MENDED AGAIN




The latest Hindi movie, ‘Dear Zindagi’ is a wonderful movie… I loved it for its subject: mental health. The story is simple and uncomplicated… The direction and cinematography are great. Acting of Alia Bhatt and Shah Rukh  Khan – Alia in particular – is brilliant. But, most of all, the highlight of the movie, in my view, is its script… dialogues. There is such a valuable stock packed in them.

Yes, I have brought home at least a dozen dialogues, which are so simple yet so priceless. Almost all of them have been delivered on screen by SRK, who plays the role of a psychotherapist… and they are addressed to his patient – client – Alia, who goes to seek his help.  Let me limit myself to just three of them, here…

1.     Safe feel karne keliye pehle saare dar mitana zaroori hai.
I could immediately relate to this one. So long as we live in fear, we cannot feel safe, cannot feel secure. So, according to the dialogue, it apparently seems, that we should ‘get rid’ of the fear… the fear should ‘go’… we should ‘remove’ fear…

It is a lovely thought. But, as I was listening to it, I knew its deeper meaning, too: that, as long as we live, the fear will live with us, too. Fear, as the Vedas say, is our most loyal companion… it accompanies us till our grave!

So, how can we ‘remove’ fear from our life?

In the movie, when the patient earnestly asks the doctor whether her life would be free from problems and fear’, he says ‘No’. He reminds her, that the insights she has obtained while dealing with her present situation will surely help her deal with her future problems and fear…

Yes, fear will be there in life, always… Hence, the insecurity, too. All that can happen to us is this: We can become courageous enough to ‘see’ our fears as they are – yes, we can ‘meet our fears’… And, in that lies our freedom from fear… Our safety.

2. Don’t let the past blackmail your present… to ruin a beautiful future.
I suppose, everybody could relate to this truth… How familiar it sounds! The painful thoughts of our past when come to haunt us, they do not seek our permission… They just come and leave us battling… So long as the past rules our life, the present is blackmailed and the future is ruined!

When I was listening to the doctor’s advice, I was aware of this, too: there is no way we can ‘block’ the entry for our past thoughts… happy, sad or mad… Thoughts do not seek our permission to enter our homes… What we can do is: ‘See’ their presence as it is… and what they do to us. In that very awareness lies, too, our freedom. When we ‘see’ how past can blackmail our present and ruin our future, we get liberated from the shackles of our past…

But, like the daily bath, we have to take this ‘mental bath’ everyday… when past comes home!

3.     Everything that is broken can be mended again.
What a reassuring thought it is … What a promise!

From a broken statue to a broken piece of furniture… from a broken cycle to a broken life… yes, there is nothing on this earth that cannot be mended… cannot be fixed. When I came home, I brought home this truth… this promise… this hope. Just think about it… If we are able to own this hope, this truth… that, every broken thing can be mended… how zestful life can be!

So, let’s never give up on life… life is dear. Dear zindagi!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Internet





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