THE LIFE AND THE LARGER-THAN-LIFE






My wife did not want to watch ‘Bahubali-2’. “I have watched ‘Bahubali-1’, that’s enough,” she was very clear, “Except the grandeur and VFX effects, there will be nothing in it… I don’t want to watch it.”

But, I wanted to. The reason: I did not want to miss out on something created in our country as ‘too big’, ‘too ambitious’… just like the Taj Mahal, or, for that matter, our own (Mumbai’s) Sea-link, the Metro or the Monorail… the Express way or the Freeway… the IMX Dome… the Imagica… yes, all those had been larger-than-life creations… the ‘big things’.  So, like everyone else, I, too, wanted to be a part of the spectacle called ‘Bahubali-2’ only for that reason. To me, ‘Bahubali-2’ was our own ‘The Ten Commandments’, ‘Ben-Hur’, ‘Troy’ and ‘Gladiator’.

So, last week, I called up my wife and said, “I will be watching the 1.30 show of ‘Bahubali-2’… You don’t want to watch, right?”

“Yes, I don’t want to,” she was emphatic, “But, I don’t want you to watch it alone, either.”

“So, shall I book your ticket?” I asked, “Just an hour left.”

“I am coming!!!”

Inside the theatre, as Bahubali kept bashing and kept getting bashed, as the screen went on flames and as the palaces crumbled like pack of cards… as the mayhem started giving me terrible headache, my wife kept looking at me to tease, “So, you wanted to watch it, na?... Now suffer!”

They say, in Life, our pain is, always, inevitable… but our suffering is, always, optional. Whose choice was it to watch? Mine. So, to suffer or not to suffer, too, was my choice… Too much of destruction on screen was giving me a terrible headache… But, I chose to watch it, right?

Right.

“What did you like about ‘Bahubali-2’ movie? I have asked this question, in our on-going P.D. sessions, to both little-ones and young-ones, who had watched it invariably along with their families and friends… yes, in big numbers that is. Each one had liked it for one reason or the other… I hadn’t heard anyone telling me ‘I got a 1000-crore headache’. So, it really looked as if I was an odd-ball when it came to this biggest, highest, newest block-buster called ‘Bahubali-2’.

It’s okay… It’s perfectly okay to be an odd-ball…

But, interestingly, there was one scene – the most unlikely it may seem – which had moved me a lot. Bahubali and his fully-pregnant wife have been thrown out of the palace… They have come to live among the ordinary poor-folks… People shower love, respect and honor on the heroic couple… To them, Bahubali and his wife are their king and queen, the rulers of their hearts… Yes, despite owning nothing…  Their life looks like a life in paradise…And, there, inside the palace, the king, the queen and the entire royal clan are seen living in suffering… It’s like a life in hell. “Even though Bahubali lives outside the palace, he appears to be the happiest and the richest,” the King and his clan are unable to accept this truth…

Bahubali was God’s special child. He had earned the divine grace… He had earned people’s love, respect and honor… He was a blessed one, the hero… the legend…

For that, I stand up and say, “Long live the Legend!”


GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Internet

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MUTHU KODI KAWARI HADA

Image
Pic.; Ashwin Mohta M y Hindi was always bad. It still is. One reason for this was, that they introduced Hindi for us only in 6 th standard. Or, was it in 8 th ? I don’t remember… I only remember struggling to write and read… leave alone speak! But, I loved Hindi movies, and, strangely, I could understand the dialogues and the lyrics of the songs… I used to sing those songs (of course when no one was around me!) as if I was the lyricist… One of the songs was a very funny one. ‘Muthu Kodi Kawari Hada’. It was from Mehmood’s super-hit comedy – ‘Do Phool’. I was a 15-year-old high-school boy when I had heard that song (not watched the movie). I could grasp the meaning of two words – ‘Muthu Kodi’… which meant ‘Give kiss’… But, what ‘Kawari Hada’ meant, I have no clue till date! It was just like ‘Why this kolaveri di’... Yes, why ask? Simply enjoy the beats… And, the beats are great… The rest... Who cares? Really! So, whatever bit of Hi...
Read more

SELLING MIRRORS IN THE CITY OF THE BLIND

Image
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.” - Kabir T here is a universal human weakness – and it dates back to the days of fallen civilizations – and it is: to place people on pedestal and trying to be smothered by them, feel loved and protected in their company… worship them as mentors, heroes,  gurus, Mahagurus and Satgurus… Make these mortals larger-than-life cut-outs, worship them as flawless, pure and give one’s all… And, then, ‘take’ everything from them blindly as divine… Give everything to them blindly… Eventually, what happens is:  one more dangerous bondage… What was supposed to free you now becomes a new prison… It’s sad to see this happen! T his room, where I am writing this Post, has no image of any deity. I have no image of any Guru or Master around me… My question is: “Am I not able to feel close to Almighty God?  How ...
Read more

"HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS NOT A FAIRY-TALE... IT IS A CHOICE"

Image
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone… It has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K. Le Guin,  The Lathe of Heaven T welve years ago, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married, the world began to hail the couple as ‘Brangelina’. It became a fashion for couples around us to call themselves so… Norbert and Teresa renamed them as ‘Noresa’…  Amol and Vishaka baptized their relationship as ‘Amoshka’… and, Salman and Nargis became ‘Salgis’! I and my wife, too, got tempted to re-christian our matrimonial relationship as ‘Germa’... That is, Gerald and Anima, to be precise! B efore I proceed any further, let me make it very clear, here… that, I have no business to judge on the break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina’ Jolie’s marriage. I have no inclination to go into why, how, what when etc behind it… The couple ‘chose’ to split. And, it’s their choice… Only they know how good or bad… how joyful or pain...
Read more
THE WILD, WAYSIDE FLOWERS
There is, always, something extra-ordinary in the wild, wayside flowers...