27 February 2005

About a girl

She loves mythology. Like all teens, she feels misunderstood and wronged. Her eyesight has begun to suffer from having nothing distant to stare at and the constant semi-lit rooms.

She writes with amazing clarity and little reserve, seems to have been gifted with the tricks of the trade. She wants to be a journalist one day, and then a writer. She can no longer step out of the house, and she realises that she is being wronged; that a life in hiding, however better than death, is still a life full of merciless compromises.

Yet, she manages to find her little happinesses, and stops complaining, at least once in a while:

"What could be nicer than sitting before an open window, enjoying nature, listening to the birds sing, feeling the sun on your cheeks and holding a darling boy in your arms? I feel so peaceful and safe with his arms around me, knowing he's near and yet not having to speak; how can this be bad when it does me so much good?"

She dares to dream, and what dreams!
"I still have visions of gorgeous dresses and fascinating people ... I want to see the world and do all kinds of exciting things, and a little money wont hurt!"

By age 15, she is aware that the world and its cruelties make no sense, has the insight of a 60-year-old, and yet is intensely sensitive to the beauties of life - however fleeting a glance she has of them:
"I was greatly struck by the fact that in childbirth alone, women commonly suffer more pain, illness, and misery than any war hero ever does. And what's her reward for enduring all that pain? She gets pushed aside when she's disfigured by birth, her children soon leave, her beauty is gone. Women, who struggle and suffer pain to ensure the continuation of the human race, make much tougher and more courageous soldiers than all those big-mouthed freedom-fighting heroes put together!"

She died in misery and hopelessness in a concentration camp in Germany, without ever blooming to her full. A soul ever in quest of love, understanding, freedom; a kid ever wanting to get back to school, ever wanting to enjoy the beauties of nature: full of hope, aspirations, fear, courage, and wonder. Her life stands as testimony to man's destructive instinct; to man's hatred based on vague notions of difference, of 'we' versus 'they'; to what depths man can fall, and to what heights woman can reach.

She is Anne Frank.

9 comments:

0 said...

Is an awesome book... can't begin to imagine what it must be like. Makes me think freedom is so worth fighting for or even dying for... this kind of half-life leads to death in any case if not killing the spirit!! Still marvel at our will to survive... amazing aint it. Nice... me likey very much.

Anonymous said...

Why did you remove the doodle board? Just wanted to find out if you watched 'Beru'..if you havent dont miss it..its being screened at PVR with sub titles. Its a must watch :)

Vijayalaxmi Hegde said...

Doodle has gone pay. Me being a firm beleiver in open source (read cheap bugger), removed it. What is Beru?

Anonymous said...

Train hoda mele ticket? What do you think will be screened at PVR with sub titles? anyways its gone now but the news is that it will be screened again in one of the theatres at Majestic..dont miss it. Its a movie by Sheshadri starring Dattanna, Suchendra prasad, Seetharam etc.,. Have you moved out of Bangalore?

Anonymous said...

Anne Frank.. really ?!?!? ..

didn know cobain wrote abt anne frank ..

Vijayalaxmi Hegde said...

What are you talking about, anonymous?

Vijayalaxmi Hegde said...

Thank you for the note. You are right.

Anonymous said...

"About a girl" 's a song from nirvana's first album .. out of context ofcourse ..

Vijayalaxmi Hegde said...

Anonymous: Oh ok.