rambling thoughts

Book Review by: gurtey

Original Author: gurtey

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Of all the films I have seen in my long life , some have stuck in my memory for their

educative content. One is the true story of a boy sent back home in disgrace from a naval training institution on charges of despicable misconduct and how his father did not count the cost in fighting for the conviction that his son was innocent. In the initial stages, the father’s appeal for a review of the case met with the stolid refusal from the authorities on the ground that full justice had been done by a duly constituted panel of impartial judges and the case could not be reopened. In saying that ‘the king can do no wrong’ the authorities added a sting to their curt refusal. The father grilled his son and satisfied himself that his boy, who faced the volley of questions with a straight eye, could not have been guilty of improper behavior as alleged. He had just retired as Cashier in a reputed Bank after 40 years of meritorious and impeccable service. In deciding to stake his entire savings and terminal benefits on the fight to establish his son’s innocence, he had the moral support of his wife and his other children, a daughter and son elder to the boy. A leading light of the legal world was approached in this matter. . // I shall next turn to the film with the title ‘It is a wonderful life’. I have had the privilege of seeing it every year, since it was first produced, in a cinema theatre or the T.V. till the year 2003 as part of the festivities associated with the birth of Christ. After seeing the film, I dare say that no one would be inclined to dismiss as myth and superstition the belief that ‘there is a guardian angel’ to every one who takes birth in this world. The dominant idea on which the story is built is that one should never give up in despair in any situation however hopelessly dispiriting it may look. The accent is on positive thinking. When you toss a coin, the mathematical probability of its showing ‘head’ or ‘tail’ is 50:50, but it may not appear so immediately with repeated trials. If ‘positive thinking’ becomes an automatism with you, it is possible for you to pre-determine which side of the coin exposes itself to your view on its landing on earth after it is tossed into the air. Just as salt dissolving in water becomes a visible crystal at a stage where the solvent cannot take more of it, hope becomes a permanent reality and enables you to gain mastery over circumstances. // The third film is called ‘Blossoms in the dust’. It is a powerful portrayal of the grievous mistake we, as a society, are committing in calling innocent babes illegitimate and punishing them for the sin of their parents who opted for pleasure but evaded their responsibility for the consequence of their fleeting dalliance. An aged childless couple with ample means adopted a son from their close family circle to enliven the evening of their lives, but as ill-luck would have it, the boy was snatched away from them by death within a year of his adoption. The couple shifted to a different place and hit on the idea of running an orphanage to serve as an asylum for a whole lot of children abandoned by their biological parents who could not be traced. Their idea took proper shape and they were supremely happy at being foster-parents of hundreds of such unfortunates instead of just one. The locality, however, was full of people with pseudo-puritanical outlook and they united in a campaign to have the orphanage relocated elsewhere, if it could not be closed down altogether. They considered it as a source of all possible evil to the society around. The couple tried to parry off the unreasoning attack on the institution run by them as a model of what social philanthropy should be like. Eventually, on an intelligent suggestion put to them by a number of moral supporters, the couple sent out an invitation to the whole town for Annualday festivities. To the guests, it was announced there would be a competition. With the consent of parents, a good number of children from respectable families would be mixed with the regular inmates of the orphanage and anyone who succeeded in finding out which, among them, were the illegitimate ones, would be awarded a prize. None could muster the courage to come forward to take part in the competition. In thus proving the point that ‘there are only illegitimate parents’ the couple won over the opposition and remained to serve the society in their own way. // There are many more films on my list which I should like to write about, but I stop here. I stop here for the reason that, except in regard to Faith, hope and positive thinking, I am only a novice easily vulnerable to the cheap sneer that ‘all this idealism is an empty show’ and so on.