Wednesday, September 05, 2007

The Blue Umbrella



It is a story of a small girl who has a blue umbrella and how deeply she is in love with it. Entire movie revolves around the blue umbrella.
One day somebody steals it and the little girl’s life is devastated. She stops eating and stops playing with friends.
At a certain point I felt it was exaggerated. Whose life will be dull and unhappy by losing such a trivial thing like an umbrella?
After thinking for a while I felt everybody must be having some non-living thing which is very dear to them.

But my doubt was resolved when I thought about my own life…

Have I ever had something like this girl had her blue umbrella?

Yes I did …

In my case it’s my ink pen. I have had it since I was in 9th grade. I used it in every exam after that. I wouldn’t give it to anyone even to try. I thought if someone else used it then my handwriting would become like the person who used it. Not that I have good handwriting but it’s not that bad.
(I mean not as bad as people who have handwriting that could be understood by the only person who taught them how to write!)

I would say all doctors should have an exquisite ink pen like I have… It would be another subject of discussion as to why 99% doctors have hideous handwriting.

I have this strong feeling that my handwriting became better after I started using this pen. I was in unfathomable love with this pen. If you are using something for such a long time then you will be too much used to it and take its presence for granted.

One fine day when I wanted to write I started looking for my pen and could not find it, I searched for it all over the place and when I didn’t get it anywhere in the house, I panicked…

I wasted hours looking for it… asked everyone in the family if they saw it… I annoyed every family member with stories of my pen and I, how happy we were together and in fact it was manufactured only for me…
I tried watching some TV just to forget about it but instead of watching the program running on TV I kept picturizing things like how I used to write with it, how long I have been using it… it feels so soft while writing… my handwriting looks like black (and sometimes blue) pearls when I write with it (that’s what I thought!)…my pen looked so good… when and where did I use it last time… and most of all where did I keep it.

I kept pondering about it for 2 days… I wouldn’t talk about anything but the pen. If I saw any family member relaxing in the house I would tell them to use their time doing some fruitful thing; such as looking for my pen. In college I would keep gazing at what people were writing with and in mind I would keep comparing that my pen was so much better than anyone else’ in the class.

And then after a very long wait of 2 days I found it, I was in seventh heaven. After the incidence I became more cautious in its use, Nah not too much, only thing is I used to lock it in my table’s drawer (I am fortunate enough not to have lost the key to the drawer!) The first thing that I put in the bag while packing for the US was my dear pen.

What the girl goes through in the movie is more or the same what I went through. After remembering about my ink pen I enjoyed the movie more … it felt realistic. Pankaj kapoor is at his best in the movie. Direction is also extra-ordinary. This movie is different than the usual song/ dance Hindi cinema. Different concept…worth watching…