The Gift of Magi

“Today we are going to have a story review”, I announced in the class and expected to have some unexpected reactions and unexpectedly got the same. Very obediently my students’ eyes fell on the pile of books in my hands. I briefly introduced the books so that they could choose the one they found interesting. One of the books was titled 100 Selected Stories by O. Henry. “Well it’s just superb, many beautiful stories are there and O Henry is a very good writer; you would really enjoy reading him.”, I said (I knew it was not enough, but I did not find words, from my limited knowledge of vocabulary, that can serve my purpose of commenting the book and secondly the review was to be presented by my dear students so I just had to content myself by providing a ‘brief’ introduction of the book- a difficult task for a teacher). I gave each of them a book and announced that they were to read the story they liked and then present a review on it. Reviews were presented on various stories and one of the reviews was on “The Gift of the Magi”. I admire O. Henry and had read the story years back. A brief and nicely presented review when I heard of the story, I was tempted to read the story again. Well I started reading the story, ruminated over a few lines and thought that the day was just fantastic. Many a time I think that there are certain feelings or emotions that can’t be expressed by words because the words that they deserve for being expressed are not coined. However, I have been proved wrong many times, especially when I read some beautiful piece of writing, I feel that there are people who have mastered the art of reflecting colourful emotions through the mirror of words. Words are not read, when we read their artistic creations, we read their feelings, their emotions. “The Gift of the Magi” is one of such creations.
The story is about a married couple Della and Jim. The next day was Christmas and Della wanted to buy a Christmas gift for Jim, but she had only one dollar and eighty seven cents. She could not buy any good gift with such a meagre amount of money she had, nor could she be happy without giving a Christmas gift to her husband. As Henry mentions in the story, they were not well to do, but there were two possessions in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch which once belonged to his father and also to his grandfather and the other was Della’s hair. Della and Jim were one of those (fortunate) couples who had a lot of love for each other which was far more precious and valuable than any other material possession. Della saw herself in the mirror and pulled down her hair which reached below her knees. There was a glow in her eyes and after some moments a tear or two. The tears had disappeared, but the glow was still there in her eyes when she left her home and reached a place where the Sign read: “All types of hair goods”. She told a lady over there that she wanted to sell her hair. The lady observed Della’s hair and gave her twenty dollars for her hair. Now Della had twenty one dollars and eighty seven cents. She visited many stores to buy a fob for Jim’s gold watch, which then had a leather belt, depreciating the value of the watch. Finally she came across the one which she had been searching for. Now comes the magic of Henry, a wonderful description of the chain. This is how it reads. “It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation – as all good things do… As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim’s. It was like him. Quietness and value – the description applied to both.” It’s simply superb. I mean- proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation- as all good things do- VAAAHHH, well said, very well expressed.  Let’s go back to the story. Della bought the chain for twenty one dollars and went home. She was a bit worried by the thought of Jim’s reaction when he would see her. She started making them look better by making some curls. Again I would like to cite here what Henry says. “When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends – a mammoth task.” VAAAAHHH again, selling her hair was the intoxication of love (to which generosity was added) and adorning it to make it look better was the prudence. Henry beautifully describes love and reason here, just COOOOOOOOOOOOL. (Back to the story) Jim came to home. When he saw Della he carried none of the expressions on his face of which Della had been thinking, in fact there was no expression at all. Della started explaining. She said, “Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered’, she went on with a sudden serious sweetness, “but nobody could ever count my love for you…” Jim, as if he were coming out of a trance, said, “Don’t make any mistake, Dell, about me. I don’t think there is anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you will unwrap that package you may see why you had me going awhile at first.” Jim gave Della her Christmas present. When she opened it, she saw a set of combs she had fancied a lot. It was nicely adorned with jeweled rims. Della had the combs, but the hair for which the combs were bought were no more there now. She said to Jim “…my hair grows awfully fast..” Meanwhile Della noticed that Jim had not yet seen his Christmas present. She unwrapped it for Jim and showed him the chain she had bought for his gold watch. She asked Jim to take out his gold watch. In reply, Jim took out his empty hand from his pocket and said that he had already sold the watch in order to buy her the set of combs!!!!
From the ordinary point of view their acts were foolish, but not so from that of Henry’s and even from mine. The title is rightly given “The Gift of the Magi”, as The Magi are considered the wisest gift givers. Della and Jim are as wise as the Magi, and truly so as they loved each other. No wisdom can surpass the one stemmed out of love…and I don’t think there can be any better Christmas gift than the one Della and Jim gave each other…

I wish I could have a story review everyday…

Reminiscence...

“Hors d’ oeuvres have always had a pathetic interest for me. They remind me of one’s childhood that one goes through, wondering what the next course is going to be like and during the rest of the menu one wishes one had eaten more of the hors d’ oeuvres.” – SAKI

Summer has already started. Morning 7 is the time when I go for my work. It takes me around 20 mins. to reach to my work place. I enjoy this 20 minute ride and so I tend to drive my scooter very slow. But for last few days I have had a feeling of something missing. I could not make it out at first, but then I realized that those huge yellow buses full of lovely kids were not seen on the roads any more and the auto rickshaws full of those naughty creatures were also missing. Today as it’s Sunday I am home. This Sunday afternoon is unusually halcyon because two little monsters from my neighborhood have gone out to their uncle’s place to infect it with their wickedly adventurous deeds.
These all emboss the cooler side of summer in my mind. Summer is generally seen at as the season when the Sun God pours his rage on earthlings, but seeing from the other side, summer too is a cool season. The estival heat also brings cool things with it. You may disagree, but I have strong grounds to stand. To start with, the fruit which would have tempted even Adam and Eve away from the fruit of knowledge, had it been there- yes it’s none other than Mango. Mango would never be there if there were no summer. Next comes ice cream and ice golas…yeah yeah I know, for having ice cream you do not require any particular season, you can have it any time you wish. But the fun it gives to your taste buds and the relief that it gives to your stomach can not be matched when you have it in any other season!!! Then comes Yummy pickles which are made in summer and then are preserved for the rest of the year. More than anything else summer brings with it the long awaited vacation, the time I used to wait for when I was in school. Summer is the season redolent of childhood. It reminds me of those early morning walks that we friends used to take in summer vacation. It reminds me of those restless afternoons when impervious to severe heat and careless about our complexions, we used to play hide and seek. It reminds me of those summer training camps where learning craft was a real fun. Summer used to be the time when there was no home work to be done, no teacher to be faced, no school to be attended and there was just fun, vacationing, friends, books (other than syllabus, of course), T.V., Video games, and most important ‘Mama nu ghar’. Indifferent to any worldly concerns, I, rather we, used to enjoy summer more than any other season. Perhaps, people start disliking summer when they grow up because the fun part about summer disappears and what remains there is a bit less funny. Summer is enjoyable even now, but not as much as it used to be. Summer doesn’t change, people change, they grow up. They worry about their complexions, they worry about their clothes and the people around when the melted ice cream or the juice from ice gola fall on their clothes. May be even they can enjoy summer vacation the way kids do, but they learn to prioritize the things when they grow up. They feel complacent only with ice cream and mangoes and pickles. The vacation part may not be there in their priorities as they now compete against clocks. It's very much natural, the course of time brings with it maturity and the trivial worries about exams and home work change into concerns regarding career and life. Most of the time that used to be spent on playing with puppies, on grounds is now spent in offices. It's very much true that however older a person grows there is a child in him. But a grown up person can be childish or childlike but not a child. Because a child enjoys its dependence and for a grown up dependence is a curse. A child enjoys the life as it comes and a grown up plans for his life. A child does not bother about future and a grown up lives for his future. Childhood is a phase that comes only once and passes very fast.  What remains there is a childish grown up.
It is rightly said by Calvin- "Childhood is temporary and maturity is forever."

Can’t everyone be a Peter Pan?

Migration

Finally switching to Blogspot...
It's  more fun here...delighted by the amenities...
Changed the name as well...'Cornucopia'  is now 'The Soul unto Itself'.
Shifting all my older posts as soon as possible...

Big Fish

"There's a time when a man needs to fight, and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny is lost... the ship has sailed and only a fool would continue...."

At times people fight and they win and if they don't win they again fight and they fight again for many times; they either win or surrender.  They surrender because they can't stand the test of time. By the time they reach the sea they find the ship already sailed and they make a wise decision of  giving up the thought of journey. If somebody tries to chase the ship they would laugh at them considering them fool. So called wise people would definitely agree with the quote above, but the quote is incomplete. The actual quote is :

"There's a time when a man needs to fight, and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny is lost... the ship has sailed and only a fool would continue. Truth is... I've always been a fool. "

The quote above is a dialogue from the movie Big Fish. The movie is a pure fantasy so the 'only reality' people may not like it, but for fantasy loving souls the movie is a real fun. Whenever you are tired or need some pills of inspiration do not turn to any conventionally motivational lecture or any inspiring videos, do watch the movie. Impossible looking things are actually possible if we change our way of looking at them. Fantastic looking things can be real and the movie depicts it well and that too without any heavy doses of  'word of wisdom'.

The movie is fantastic though realistic. It has wit and humour in its dialogues. There is a first sight love and there is persistent, selfless labours of years to gain the love. There are stories about haunted house and monstrous creature, and there are stories about depth of relations. Big Fish is a story of a man who prefers to choose the road less traveled.   It is a story of a story teller and his son and that of myths and truths. Big Fish is a story of a big fish who is touched by something extra and is never caught.

All in all, a must watch movie.

They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that's true. What they don't tell you is that when it starts again, it moves extra fast to catch up.  From: Big Fish