ARE YOU NICE BECAUSE YOU ARE RICH?
“People
who advocate simplicity have money in the bank;
the money came first, not the simplicity.”
Ki-taek: She's rich, but still nice.
Chung-sook: Not ‘rich, but still nice.’ She's nice because she's
rich. Hell, if I had all this money. I'd be nice, too!
- From the movie ‘Parasite’
While
my wife and I were entering inside the grand lobby area of R City Mall in
Mumbai, a very delightful sight – did I say 'delightful'? – greeted us. About hundred little school-children
from one of the poorest neighbourhood-areas had been brought there, apparently,
to give them a feel of what a mall was – or was it what an affluent life was? I
don’t know what these little angels, in their soiled school uniform, were brought there
for… A couple of teachers had made the kids sit on the floor in a beautifully-disciplined
manner… Kids had a box of snacks and Frooti in hands, and needless to say, a glow
in their eyes (I guess, some kind soul had gone an extra-mile to bring about this glow!)…
“Let’s wait
here for a moment,” I said to my wife, “please take a picture.”
She did.
We were there
to watch the evening show of the Oscar-winning movie ‘Parasite’. Our son was nudging
us to watch it, “Don’t miss it.”
So, we did not
want to miss it, even though we both had our apprehension, whether we would be
able to follow the story line and dialogues. Yes, our son had told us, that
there were subtitles in English which we would be able to follow easily…
The movie ‘Parasite’
has been acclaimed so much – particularly by the young city-audience like our
27-year- old – that, at the end of the movie, my wife and I, literally had to
whisper into each other’s ears - ‘Did you understand?’…
We were scared,
that someone around us would laugh at our ‘low IQ’!
Nevertheless, we
did not want to miss it… And, please forgive us, my wife and I are really not
used to following movies like ‘Parasite’. It must be a great movie… Else, it
would not have won so many hearts and so many prestigious awards…
So, let me leave
it at that.
We
do not need to go to watch a Hollywood or a South Korean movie to understand
the reality of the stark contrast between the rich and the poor around us… We
just need to open our hearts, and, may be our eyes. This was clear to me as I
was stepping into the grand lobby of the Mall which housed the INOX cinema
hall, where we were going to watch the movie about the rich and the poor. The same striking
awareness made me wonder about what was going on in the minds of the young boys
who were continuously working to keep those restrooms of INOX so ‘posh’, so
inviting… Were those boys thinking about the kind of toilets they were using in
and around their own shanties?
Is this guilt in me a good one or a or bad one? Is something wrong with me – my IQ and EQ?
I really do
not know, Sir.
In
the afternoon, an elderly man had come to our house to deliver the weekly quota
of vegetables and fruits my wife had ordered. Normally, this man would come
late in the evening, when I was around. He walked two kilometers, carrying the
container on his head. I would offer him a glass of chilled rose-drink… and, he
would profusely thank me as he left our house. Yesterday, as he had come in the
afternoon, I wasn’t at home. My wife was busy with checking, counting, making
his payment and a phone call, and so, the chilled rose-drink had completely
slipped out of her mind. At night, she narrated to me what had followed… “Madam, ek glass paani milega?”
Sounds
familiar?
We all have
both, the rich and the poor, above us and below us. This means, at whatever
position we are – there are people better off and worse off than we are… This
is nothing new to our existence… This guilt, therefore, is a good guilt, I
suppose…
So, I conclude
– ‘metaphorically’ – that, this good guilt is the real ‘Parasite’!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: CinemaBlend
Video: IGN
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