Wall-e : A Story Of You And Me

Today, I watched "Wall-e", for the first time. I liked the movie very much. Well one might wonder, considering my record of watching 'five people in the hall' type movies, that no wonder I liked this flick. However, I must say that this film is made differently. Without uttering heavy and verbose dialogues throughout the movie, protagonists convey a very clear message of Love, compassion, friendship and taking care of your own home (in a very broad sense).

Somehow, I felt a pinch deep inside my heart (for rationalist folks, I'll convey the coordinates later secretly). If I go back in time and rewind the cassette (yes, I'm god damn old fashioned), I can see the transition of my mind, our minds very clearly. From the time I was born and initial few years, I was a person of pure heart. Gradually, thanks to the influential society, I unknowingly changed. Material impurities got mixed and the gift of pure heart was left way behind, buried literally. I clearly remember childhood's golden days filled with pampering and love. I believe, it wasn't just a love of people around, towards me but it was the love shared. I use to love the people around equally. Trust me that is the thing, a pure hearted love, keeps you happy. To love a puppy, I never expected that poor little soul to wag its tail in order to be worthy of my love. Nor it expected me to pat its back, in return of licking my tender feet. That was it. So simple, pure and square. When I was a small kid, I used to feel sorry if somebody said bad words about the apartment where I lived or the colony or my town or the state or the country. I never had any barriers or boundaries to love something or to feel something "My own". As a pure hearted kid, I used to feel sorry for an elephant dying in a movie. I used to feel sorry for the death of earthquake victims - faces of whose I had seen on television and I didn't even know what the bloody earthquake meant. It was the same level of compassion shared across everything around.

Things have changed over the time and they have excruciating effect on my life. The magnitude of feeling aforementioned emotions has gone down to the minimal. Do I feel anything truly? When the newsreader tells me that hundreds of people were killed in terrorist attack, I stare at the TV as if it is ruining my evening with this bad news. I just see which town, what people. If not my town or my people, simply move on to the next news or change the damn channel. What's going on? What if its my own town? Well, in that case, just a phone call to home will make sure that my parents are alright. As simple as that. If I see an accident victim on the road, I simply walk away or pass a comment that these guys should be punished for reckless driving. And move on. I don't give a rat's ass to anyone who's calling my - colony, town, state and country, names. See I mentioned the names as well in reverse order of their actual precedence. The same feeling of love which I felt for years has been replaced by emotions of different categories, for instance - acquaintance. When I used to play games or sports in my childhood, I felt no blood rush when I lost the game. Whenever I lost, I lost it bright and free. I used to play with my own strengths and weaknesses. These days, thanks to corporate culture, my focus is not on winning with my own skills but on making the other party lose the game.

What the heck has gone wrong with me? When was the last time I "strongly felt" for something? Why so many things have changed and in return I haven't got anything? Returns again, huh !

The answer to all these questions is simple. Its just that, today's world teaches us few things as follows: Keep running and keep on moving in life or someone else will crush you down and take your place. While running don't even care about the fellow runners. Just keep on going. If they fall, do not stop. Life is meant to be like this and move on. By Jove, its true, isn't it?

Using this formula for years has made us so insensitive that we don't even bother about anything around. Relationships are also not spared in the race of life. We expect other persons to run with our own pace or least let us run the way we have been running. We do not intend to follow the word 'together' anymore. How many parents are there in this world who lost the opportunity of seeing their kids grow. Why? Because they were so busy completing their projects. So many kids today have childhood memories of mere TV, school and three-four after school classes. They don't know getting wet in the rain or running behind butterflies or eating ice fruit when no parent is watching or breaking the window panes of neighbour's house, by hitting a six of the century. There are many folks who have no time for their spouse. They see their other half only on weekends. We have become so distant from our buddies that to call them up to say Hi, we need to plan or have to wait till weekend. People have started caring about their personal space so much that living behind so called confined walls have made them confined in life. Today's generation feels that grandparents entering their rooms is nothing but privacy invasion. However, they are left deprived of the love and a special bond shared with grandparents. Even on a broad scale, outside our houses, we are ignorant about issues that can hamper the society. For example, pollution, corruption, poverty and what not. We all don't even give a second thought before using vehicles for a distance as less as 100 meters. We don't care how much fuel we are wasting and causing the earth to burn and heat up. Altogether, we don't feel anything. We are becoming machines. But at what cost? The overall happiness quotient has gone down with the inflated bank balances. Indeed. When was the last time you laughed out loud from the bottom of your heart?

Having said all these gloomy things, I dare say that we all have been taught to run without purpose. How many of people around you know "The Purpose" for which they are running? Very few. Most of us are running without it. We all need to slow down a bit and take a break deciding our priorities and grand purpose in life. You see, its a gradual process. We are becoming like those humans (John and Mary), as depicted in the movie - Wall-e, confined to a comfortable cushion but deprived of happiness and purpose. To reverse this process, we need to attune ourselves to something like the robot Wall-e, who is simple, loving, compassionate.

Take a stop and look around yourself. take a stop and look within yourself. You will see what is within is what is around.

-M.