The Big Picture

I had the good fortune of watching Blood Diamond today. Albeit a year after release, I am glad I watched it, for I feel shaken and my thoughts, stirred.

For those of you who haven't chanced upon the movie yet, Its a story set against the backdrop of the Civil war and illegal smuggling of diamonds in Seirra Leone. The story brings together the three protagonists, each from a different walk of life, each silently grieving loss. Loss of family, loss of purpose, loss of identity. The circumstances around them push them to being what they really want to be, doing what they really want to do and achieving what they desire. The movie ends on a positive note with the more progressive nations sitting up and taking notice, paving the way for the Kimberly Process to be set up against the illegal diamond trade.

The movie captures the struggle of the country and its people beautifully. The crux being exploitation of natural resources by the local rebels and traders of modern world consumerism, massacring the natives, turning adolescents into child soldiers numbed enough by the horrifying violence to shoot down one of their own, giving birth to refugee camps swarming with millions from broken homes, survivors that are scarred for life with the images of near and dear ones being slaughtered heartlessly.

This is a story of real people, of real tragedies that made me feel so thankful for where I am today. Thankful for the love and security that comes from having a family, a husband, the self respect and sense of self that comes from being educated and employed, merely the inner peace that comes from being safe. There are millions for whom the basic roti, kapda, makaan would seem like luxuries and here we are fretting over everyday traffic jams and housemaids that are never on time.

Probably we are so caught up with asking God to make tomorrow a better day, that we forget to feel thankful for all that has gone into making our yesterdays worth cherishing and our present peaceful enough to afford the time and inclination to worry, contemplate and plan a future.

Probably we take ourselves so seriously that we lose perspective of our place in the universe, we are so caught up with making things right, right now, that we lose sight of the big picture.

Hmmmm......