Loss and Opportunity

In last few months, I read/watched really different books and movies. Sometime in January, I read a great book 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'. I was reading Khaled Hosseini's work for the first time. There are four sections of this book and I remember reading first section in one sitting :) The book is a story of two women Mariam - a girl who is unwanted child and Laila - who is princess in her parent's eyes.  In the story, Marium lives with her despondent mother away from the city. Her father visits her every so often but he is determined to keep Marium and her mother away from his real family. One time Marium decides to go and meet her father in the city, her father refuses to see her and the same evening her mother commits a suicide. In one evening, Marium's life has been changed. In few days, she gets married to an old man - Rasheed. In the second section, author depicts the story of Laila who lives in the same neighborhood of Marium. Laila is a beautiful daughter of a university professor. Laila's parents adore her and have lots of dreams about her bright future. In bad turn of events, Laila's boyfriend Tariq and her parents get killed. All her parent's dream get shattered when rowdies take hold of a city and at the tender age of fifteen, Laila is now forced to marry Rasheed. Now there are two women who had a very different past of life, are living under the same roof sharing the same misery. There are heart wrenching scenes when Laila is forced to leave her daughter, Aziza at 'homeless kids house' because they cannot afford to feed five people in the house, Aziza keeps crying when Laila leaves her, or Laila's hopeless pursuits of meeting Aziza and rowdies not letting her do that.  If you ever get a chance, you should read it to know what happens next.

Last month, I watched a movie 'Message in a Bottle'. The movie is absolutely fantastic in my opinion. In this movie, the sea, the fire, the songs, the lightening are all used really well. This movie has an excellent story (based on Nicholas Sparks'a novel), a soothing background score, picturesque cinematography. This is one of those movies in which tears will roll down your cheeks however resolute you are! The story in which a husband writes a few letters to his dead wife and passes those to the sea. The other unfortunate woman discovers the bottle. Now this bottle brings two lives together who have suffered one common thing - loss of someone they loved. The movie has same great dialogs too...

"I kept crashing into things, a little crazy, I guess. I've never been lost before. You were my true north." -  Garret Blake


"To my family...
...and to all friends and strangers.
This is a message and a prayer.
The message is that my travels taught me a great truth.
I already had what everyone is searching for...
...and few ever find:
The one person in the world...
... who I was born to love forever.
A person like me, of the Outer Banks...
...and the blue Atlantic mystery.
A person rich in simple treasures...
...self-made, self-taught.
A harbor where l am forever home.
And no wind or trouble...
...or even a little death can knock down this house.
The prayer is that everyone in the world can know this kind of love...
...and be healed by it.
If my prayer is heard, then there will be an erasing of all guilt...
...and all regret...
...and an end to all anger.
Please, God.
Amen." - Catherie Blake

"If some lives form a perfect circle, other take shape in ways we cannot predict or always understand. Loss has been part of my journey. But it has also shown me what is precious. So has love for which I can only be grateful." - Theresa Osborne.

This book and movie made a huge impression on me. Many a times we take things for granted - loving and caring parents, sufficient money, good education, healthy upbringing, in fact a power to make a choice. Laila, Marium do not get any of these great opportunities. They do not have any control on anything. Garret and Theresa's lives are dictated by fate. We take pride in thinking that we realized our dreams on our own. The thing is that there were so many factors that were right so as to aid our dreams to come to reality. When we don't understand and acknowledge those factors, we don't value those. After reading the book and watching the movie, I realized that may god make us humble enough to acknowledge everything without actually having to loose something precious...