Stop and see the smaller picture !

I have been wanting to watch Shwaas for quite some time now. Thanks to my friend, Abhishek, I was able to watch it today. During and after the movie, I was thinking what was the movie all about. What did it want to convey, if it did want to convey anything at all? One thought that struck me and stayed with me after the movie too came during the end.

With almost everyone goading everyone else to "See the Big Picture", are we losing sight of the "Smaller Picture". Shwaas is the story of a 7 year old kid, Parashuram, from a village in the Konkan Region of Maharashtra. He is diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer. Operation is the only way to save the kid's life but it will take away his eyesight. The movie deals with Parashuram and his family's travails as they try to come to terms with this reality.

This is where I realized that everyone is so busy being successful and in "Seeing the Big Picture" (apologies for the liberal use of quotes) that they fail to see the smaller picture. These pictures then come back to you as a phantasmagoria when you are nostalgic or sad. Parashu's granpa takes him out of the hospital so that he can see as many things as possible before he gets operated upon. During this time, the doctor and others have despaired to the extent of verifying new suicide cases. On the duo's return, the harried doctor, gives the granpa a piece of his mind. His solution to granpa's plea that the kid was restless and cranky (the operation was postponed for a day after full preparation) was a sleeping pill.

This is when the granpa reminds him that the sleeping pill would have simply put him to sleep but would have taken away the only chance the kid could have to take a look at the kind of colours the world has to offer.

Often, and more often now, we brush routine things because they are routine. A beggar on the road, your maidservant, your colleague - all of them have a story. I am not saying go all out to help them. But once you make a habit of removing your shoes and stepping into theirs, you will see your perspective change- wider and more accommodating then before.