Friday, June 9, 2017

OUR ARROGANT SELVES


When was the last time that you ever felt a really strong and deep despair? Work? Family? Financial problems, perhaps? 

Now, can you imagine what it's like for a child to be lost--- not understanding what's going on? That's how this true to life movie started.

We watched a movie entitled "Lion" which was based on a true story and was released last 2016. 

Please watch this movie. You can thank me later. 

The movie was set in India and tells the story of a 5-year old Saroo, who got separated from his family on year 1986. He fell asleep on a train while trying to help his brother, not realizing that it would be a start of a series of whirlwind journey of search and surviving.

He woke up and found himself in Calcutta, which was a thousand miles away from their village. Both places, spoke of different languages making it very difficult for him to converse and to ask for help. 

His young age made him extremely vulnerable. He almost got kidnapped, sold and harmed. 

As he discovered that there was no one but himself, he learned how to suffice his hunger and thirst. He also have realized that he couldn't and shouldn't trust anyone--- so easily. 

A man helped Saroo get into a police station to help locate his family. He was temporarily sheltered in an orphanage where he thought he had a better deal than the harsh and unpredictable life outside. 

In 1987, Saroo was adopted by an Australian couple who wanted to raise unfortunate kids rather than having their own. They realized that the world has already got a lot of people in it. They wanted to give their adopted children--- a chance to live, a chance to be happy and a chance to have a family. 

The film jumps forward 20 years. Saroo grew to be a good person and very well-immersed in Australian community. He's now studying Hotel and Restaurant Management in a university where he developed an intimate relationship with Lucy.

It was at this point that along with Lucy, he was having a meal with friends. He left the room and saw some food in the kitchen. One of which triggered a deep-rooted memory of him and his brother back in India. He recalled a distant memory of him asking his brother to buy him this Indian dessert.

This memory woke up his almost-forgotten desire to find his real family. The longing made him quit school and isolate himself from his friends and loved ones--- as he tried to locate where his original village was, with the use of Google Earth.

He vividly recalled what it was like and how it felt: the loss, the struggles, the dangers, his family and their poverty which, all the more, made him yearn to find them.

When he was about to give up, he scrolled on a familiar rock formation where they used to collect rocks to sell. 

Supported by all his loved ones, he was able to locate his family in 2012. Reunited after 25 years, he found out that his brother died on the same night that he fell asleep on the train. 

He also found out that LION is the direct English translation of his name.

This movie has opened my eyes of how little, my problems are in the grand scheme of life and how fortunate I have been, not to be in that situation.

We are all so blessed without even realizing it.

We complain... We ramble as if we have the right to. As if the world owe us our happiness. We forget to be grateful and to be contented. 


Must watch. 

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