The diving bell and the butterfly

I just watched a French movie "The diving bell and the butterfly". It is based on a true story of a French Journalist 'Jean-Dominique Bauby'. He suffered a cerebrovascular accident at the age of 43 and was diagnosed with 'lock-in syndrome'. He was paralysed from head to toe and wheel-chair bound. All that he had was a functional left eye and imagination. He went on to dictate a book about his life with a method of blinking his left eye for alphabets. You can read about it here and here

It was truly an amazing movie, engaging and thoroughly absorbing. It was a long time since I watched a gripping movie like this one. It was very poignant. The most painful was the phone conversation between Bauby and his father. It moved me beyond words. Losing one's kid in front of one's eye is probably the worst thing that can happen to a person. Unfortunately I have come across such parents very closely. I was so moved when I read about the Ulaibettu (Mangalore) incident in which 7 children died recently. Rain always brings happy memories to us, makes us nostalgic, romantic. But unfortunately it takes few innocent lives also with it every year. I hope those parents will have enough love for life left in them to carry on. I too pray like my grandma would do, with her hands held high, and with full faith "ಮಾತಾಯಿ, ಇಷ್ಟ್ ಮಳೆ ಸಾಕ್. ಊರಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾರಿಗೂ ಉಪದ್ರ ಕೊಡ್ದೆ, ಸುಮ್ಮನಾಗು".

The movie also brought the pictures of our own Sridhar Heggodu in front of me. He is fully aware that he is dependent on others and that must be very painful. Life sometimes makes us so helpless. We always want to believe that the good things that we have currently like good job, family, friends circle etc., will continue eternally. We realize the hard truths only when that myth is busted. Bauby says at one point (not verbatim) " I can't talk to my children, can't play with them, can't clasp my arms around their smooth bodies. But I am happy for them, because they live, smile, laugh. That means a fine day to me". What we have today is a gift. But do we realize it? I hope at least one day we won't be fighting each other on various barriers like creed, language, nationality, colour, profession (like IT vs non-IT) etc. May be it is too simplistic. May be life is too complex for such idealism. But then.....life is only one.... Don't move so fast that you miss to smell the roses.