Skip to main content

Noble truth 1.5

By
Buddha told us about the existence of suffering, the cause of suffering and the path to liberation from suffering through his four noble truths. I feel that hidden in a famous comedy scene from the film "Vettam" is another noble truth about the nature of suffering. The volley of dialogues is as follows
Hero: According to my horoscope, I have bad times till I am 20.
Heroine: And, after that...?
Hero: He said I will get used to it.
This is a truth about the nature of suffering I have realised time and again. Namely,
We get used to suffering.
When I started having neck pain, I used to find it unbearable. After several years, now I can easily manage. I can even ignore it most of the time. Similarly, I have an artificial aortic valve. The clock-like sound it makes used to disturb me a lot initially. I used to find it difficult to sleep. Now, I cannot hear it unless I concentrate. In the famous book "Oru deshathinte katha", S.K. Pottekatt portrays the life of beggar kids. I felt that they had gotten used to their poverty. They were not suffering any more than the rest of us. I can keep listing examples, but I feel I have illustrated my point well enough. Now, a question to ponder: what about comforts?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kettiyollaanu Ente Maalakha

By
Kettiyollaanu Ente Maalakha is the story of Sleevachan (Asif Ali), a good-natured individual ignorant of the ways of romance and sex.  Although he had avoided marriage until 35, he decides to marry to care for his ageing mother.  The rest of the movie is about his struggles in the journey forward. I would like to get a bit into the story as some of it begs discussion.  Thus, there will be some spoilers, but I believe they would not really spoil anything. Soon after fixing the marriage, he starts panicking.  He even confesses to the local priest that he is feeling stressed because of his ignorance.  However, the priest casually dismisses these worries.  After marrying Rincy, he is unable to initiate a physical relationship, causing even more stress.  Sleevachan's struggles were cracking up people all around me, and I felt, perhaps that was the director's intention.  Those very same scenes were, however, making me extremely uncomfortable....
3 comments
Read more

Helen

By
Helen is the story of a girl's struggle as she is accidentally trapped in a life or death situation.  I did not enjoy the film because the girl's struggle disturbed me, proving that the movie was well made.  Anna Ben's (Helen) act was very convincing.  The movie certainly could have been better.  Certain cliches like Jayshankar's (Manager, Chicken Hub) character could have been avoided, especially because it does not add any value to the story.  The over-dramatised father-daughter relationship also falls into the same category.  In general, the bubbly character played by Anna Ben, in the initial segment of the movie, did not feel natural/convincing to me.  Although S.I Ratheesh Kumar (Aju Varghese) is a somewhat common trope in modern films, Aju Varghese's acting made it worthwhile.  By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62280395
4 comments
Read more

Kumbalangi nights

By
I was not impressed by Kumbalangi nights.  I don't mean to say it is a bad film.  It is certainly worth watching.  The cinematography is extraordinary.  Also, it has its moments - nice little dialogues.  But with all that, it is just an average film, or so I feel.  As I had explained in a post before , people expect explanations when you express dislike.  Actually, I wouldn't say I dislike, but I did not like it as much as others - the people I talked to.  And, in this case, I think I understand some of the reasons.  And I will be sharing those reasons with you. What do you feel when you hear someone saying "These impoverished people are so lucky.  Wish I had a skinny body like them"?  Movies like Kumbalangi nights elicit the same emotion in me.  The major problem poor people face is lack of money.  If you make a movie on the poor and completely take money out of the equation, that makes no sense.  Kumbalangi night...
9 comments
Read more