Redemption

It was last week when I happened to catch up “The Shawshank Redemption” on Movies Now. It was the third time that I watched this movie (my personal highest is Gladiator-5 times and The Bourne Ultimatum-5 times). Every time I watch this movie there is an upsurge of innumerable thoughts inside my head, thoughts which rise and burst like the tiny bubbles of water after a torrential downpour. Perhaps, the past few weeks have been pretty hard for me and “The Shawshank Redemption” was the perfect thing that indeed brought some semblance to my otherwise chaotic inner-self.

Lately, I have this feeling that everyone reaches a point in his life when he/she tends to lose control over his/her thoughts. There is a crisis of faith in what one has believed in for so long. These are the times when one really needs some words of comfort, words of encouragement, or a simple but comforting pat on the back, just telling you that you are fine, helping you to reinstate that lost faith. For me “The Shawshank Redemption” did just that.  Those platinum words of Red are still fresh in my head. “I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged; their feathers are just too bright to be caged. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. But still, the place you live in is that much more grey”.  Every time I reflect upon these words I feel liberated, a feeling which is much more profound than just being happy. A realization dawns upon me that how much important it is to respect others freedom, how much important it is to just rejoice in the glories and happiness of our near and dear ones, setting every other thing aside. Perhaps, that’s the best that we could do from our side.

Another lasting effect that the movie had on me was helping me to reinforce my belief in the concept of hope, for Andy Dufresne so rightly puts it “Hope is a good thing; perhaps the best of the things and no good thing ever dies”. Giving up on something that’s close to you, or a dream that you have been chasing for so long is perhaps the toughest thing in the world. It’s the hope that keeps you going, that keeps you thinking, that acts as a stimulus to catalyze your actions, that shows you the way out of that proverbial dark tunnel. I once again “Hope” now, hope that sooner or later I will have things the way that I have always wanted them to be, hope that I will make it to the end of the tunnel and witness the resplendent colours of success, hope that I will never give up “Hope” for it is certainly the bestest of things !