THE FLIGHT TO PARADISE

During watching the movie “Freedom Writers” the most inspiring thing was that we can even smile back at violence and war and still emerge as survivors. We are always at war. Even in the advent of a new century there is war going on at some corners of the world like a lukewarm tornado. The people in the war zones are in a different place and in a different time. Gang violence breaking out in parts of Brazil and Harlem shows us that we all are struggling for survival. Even when we think we may have our life insurances made, we still are vulnerable. We are weak in the face of danger that is wielded by a seemingly unknown assailant who in fact is your next door neighbour.

What we seek to attain is ultimately what we destroy. Our decisions are judged by observation not imagination. In the dawn of extreme technological advancement I believe that only the mindset of man is the only facet which is yet to change. We are not born valedictorians who can address a whole motley crew by merely touching salient points during school. We tell our own stories, we lay out our latent fears, we try to avoid persecution and sometimes we just fail....at everything. That makes us stronger, more aware and edgier. Whenever CNN or BBC is turned on I see gun and knife wielding ‘kids’ running across streets littered with empty tear gas shells, scraps, papers, knickknacks etc. That scene tells us a story.

It’s the story of us trying to find paradise within a bubble. After incisive analysis by so many people everyone came to the same conclusion. Man’s occupation involves a healthy dose of self-doubt yet with each passing day the barrier fades. Children now are accustomed to the word ‘war’, has been used to seeing people drop dead like flies, the numerous weapons designed to eliminate rather than save lives. Nothing is surprising anymore. As they say, we all have the power to lighten up a darkened room....but can they explain how do we get the matches? Is it hope that we need or survival skills? Maybe we need to let go and let someone else hold the candle. We’re too afraid to face reality while we cannot fall back on acerbic situations just to fake acceptance that the solution is utopian.

In some odd way war integrates all people to form some sort of a silent bond. The image of two survivors of varied ethnicities hugging each other is another way of needing acceptance. Paradise is a place where we are accepted for who we are and not who we pretend to be. We all can take off our masks and metamorphose into imperfect beings. Around the globe there are some people who are still trying to create some sort of a mini paradise even though they know it’s pointless. That shows the willingness to change lives, situations, fate itself. In every human being there is a small globule of personal happiness which cannot be destroyed by wars or hatred. That shred of happiness forms our lives, succeeds in building a foundation which can lay forth countless variations of happiness. We all need that happiness, that chance to smile, that chance to survive and see that paradise isn’t lost....its simply in front of us.

By-

Debiroopa Banerjee.

PG- Media, 1^st sem.