I saw the movie – “A Mighty Heart” a few days back. And it hasn’t left my mind since then. I don’t remember coming across a story so powerful in a long long time. Except that it’s not a story, its reality…so extremely depressing and exceptionally inspiring at the same time. It’s not about Daniel Pearl, though I wonder if anyone will ever know what he went through and what he felt. Anyways, it’s about Mariane Pearl, his wife. A woman who despite being five months pregnant, did not lose courage and searched for her husband with all her capacity. A woman who did not give up till the end. Not even when her husband was beheaded cruelly. Instead she started afresh with a courage that’s not just exceptional but exemplary as well. Imagine a person who has to live all her life with the horrific truth of her brutally murdered husband as compared to people like us who would shun watching the tape of Daniel Pearl’s murder even once.
She says “You choose fear, I choose hope. Let’s see who wins.” to those who killed her husband and seek to harm others through violence and hatred. Revenge would have come easy and naturally to not just her but to anyone who would have been subjected to similar circumstances. But the true strength of a human being’s character shines through only on such occasions where we chose to rise above our basic animal instincts. But at the same time forgiveness is too lame as an answer to extreme situations. It’s not a value strong enough to stand on. We must win some sort of victory over the people who have hurt us and we can only do that by denying the terrorists their goal. They try to kill everything in us – courage, hope, happiness. And instill in us a fear to live, a fear to live the way we want and a fear to live freely. The only way to oppose them is by demonstrating the strength they think they have taken from us – the strength to keep on living, to keep on valuing life, to be what we chose to be and not what they want us to be.
And so I salute the spirit of this tremendously brave lady. Truly “A Mighty Heart” – she, who is perceived as one of our “ordinary heroes” is certainly not ordinary at all.
September 21st, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Amazing Anam, I have seen parts of the movie and have always been wanting too because you come across so many real life heros who inspire you to believe in ourselves and to rise above circumstances.
Yes I feel if you have forgiveness in you , life gets so much easier and peaceful to live .It does take a lot of courage and largeness of heart to do it. Speaking of courage I remeber what one of our friends said when i called her a brave girl facing all the hunded drawbacks her life threw at her, she said the instinct to survive always give you that courage and I guess Mariane Pearl is another such brave lady.
Thank you Anam for bringing this up because in some way, you inspired me to take courage in every situation and face life headon. Bless you n love ya.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:25 am
As always sis very nicely written.. ab mera to film dekhna ka program hatam sari story bata di
Wakas Mirs last blog post..Bhool gayi sab kuch..
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
@Wakas Mir: hehe no, you must watch the movie. It’s really inspiring…! I haven’t told half the story so don’t worry