Skip to main content

Water. cricket

Two days ago, I was watching a Chinese film 'Shower.' It's a story of an old man and his mentally challenged son running a bathhouse. The old man's elder son who had migrated to city many years ago in search of fortune arrives one day. The misunderstandings between father-son, the love of elder brother towards his sibling, the younger one'e clear sense of right and wrong are a delight to watch. The old man narrates his wife's story to his children — a story of villages in China suffering for want of water. With very less water found for even drinking, the families in villages never take bath. However, it is their custom that a bride should take bath on the night before her wedding.
The scene where the bride's father and little brother go door-to-door seeking water is heart-rending. They carry two casks on a mule, give one large cup of rice in exchange for equivalent amount of water. After going to so many houses, they manage to fill up the casks. It is shocking that a cup of water is so precious, much more than rice. The girl then bathes in the tub filled with that water, tears mixing with the water. It is a scene I will never forget — a stark reminder to our own future.
A man lounging in the bathhouse discusses with his friends about the relocation from their street which is on the verge of demolition. His friend asks him if he would continue to rear crickets (cricket fighting is a popular pastime in China) for the game. The man looks at him, pauses, and says: "Crickets don't survive in multi-storeyed buildings." I wanted to say, "So do we." 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Two separate questions

Guess I am out of touch with everything right now, so no blog entry for many days. From many days, a question is bothering me. I haven't found a satisfactory answer yet. So I'll write it down here. Maybe anybody who reads this may know the answer. "Just because we are journalists, writers, opinion creators and thinkers, do we have the right to judge others? Either personally or professionally?" I think we don't have the right to judge a person, even if we are right. But as writers, we would have to judge others whether we like it or not. And it's very difficult forcing people to think, but that's what we are doing or pretending to be doing right? Another question: "How come life is so simple if you just let it live by itself without bothering much and so complicated if you try to manipulate it or even understand it?" Blessed are the ignorant. We who can understand everything, try not to let anything go by without understanding and thus miss the b

Why?

I miss the complexity of the book and am tired of the predictability of people. Reading each page of a book takes you to a different realm, and often surprises you with its observations. I agree books are written by people, but why do people remain predictable in life and unpredictable in fiction? 

The next step forward

“ What is the feeling when you're driving away from people, and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? It's the too huge world vaulting us, and it's goodbye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.” -- Jack Kerouac (American Poet and Novelist) From what I have seen and admired in humans, they are eternal optimists. Goodbyes seem to break us, but we straighten up and walk, holding our head high, blinking away our tears. And as regards the specks of people dispersing, when something moves away, something else comes near. Guess that's how laws of nature move. If a time comes when nothing else comes near, it's when we will become really alone; alone to live and love life without any reason, taking the next step forward.