Saturday, June 5, 2010

Of parting and honesty

A bit late in catching it, but I caught "P.S - I love you" yesterday. The movie was good, yes, with some endearingly romantic renditions by Gerald Butler, and a believably down-to-earth Hilary Swank. A touch too slow to begin with, yet the pace picks up later, and an amazing way of finishing it all off so elegantly. But if you detected doubt in my tone, indifference maybe, and a desire to get due credit and all that done with, brushed away - you are absolutely spot on.

Through the movie, I kept thinking about two other movies - also about love and parting - "A Walk to Remember" and "If Only". The first is an absolute mind-blower. You just can't slot it under feel-good cinema, or drama, or romance, nothing! The second, a very good movie in it's own right, is faster, more dramatic, yet doesn't have the elegance of the first.

The common theme, in all three, was love, parting and death. Specifically, what would you do for the person you love. Do you hold tighter, or do you let go? Remarkably, "If-Only" held tighter, "A Walk...." reconciled with the inevitable and "P.S" taught you how to let go. However, that wasn't what I got from them all. What I saw, under the hood, was an innate fear of all of us, about waking up one day and finding that something or someone you love is not longer there. That feeling, in all these movies, drives incomparable acts of compassion, selfless things that are so touching that, despite the odds being in such situations 1 to a million, you wonder if that was you, would you be as perfect as that.

Personally, I think a lot of things that we have today are taken for granted. Particularly people. We assume that the same faces we fight with, or scream or rant or hammer down today, will be there tomorrow for round two. We believe that the people we have had forever, will continue to be there forever after. We honestly, honestly believe that people we've met, and have grown to love, will stand around forever, and hey, you managed without them once right? What's the big deal?

Unfortunately, life doesn't flow backward. There could be a host of reasons for it, but people don't stay around forever. Imagine any person you care about, imagine them just gone, tomorrow. Without knowing how much you loved them, enjoyed their company, cared for them - imagine having to deal with all that. I guess what I'm getting at is, sometimes we keep from saying the 'silly sentimental things' - there's a moment where you almost, almost bare your heart, but a voice in your head - that complacent, lazy, smug devil reminds you of how stupid you may look, and that things are fine now anyway. Whenever you have one of those, just imagine, if today was the last time you'd speak to that person. Give yourself that little push, and let the special people know really how special they are.

Worst case, they might dismiss you as a sentimental sop. Usually accompanied by a sudden change in topic, or an 'Enough already! :)'. But the same people will watch those movies with a pack of tissues and cry their tear-ducts dry. To them I say - Life doesn't have grandiose moments of epiphany - you make your own, small, memorable moments. Why wait for dramatic events, when the people, your feelings, and you are here already?

P.S - I love y'all!

3 comments:

Jan said...

I love you shau!

jaygow said...

Sharadh:
Hmm... must be getting older (and wiser?!!) orey mushy, mushy... hope all is well..
BTW: love ya too!;-))

Sharu said...

Thankoo both!

@JC: I swear, its the movie! Not ready to grow up just yet ;) And hmph.. wiser does not imply I'm not feeling well!!