Living the life in “Anand” Way
We welcomed 2020 with an eruption of Taal Volcano, seeing Australia on fire, Indonesia flooded with water. Iran also w_elcomed the new year with fireworks when its unleashed missiles aimed at the American bases in Iraq however, accidentally killed 150 passengers, and now, the COVID 19 is creating havoc in paranoid minds globally.
The human race requires some examples from the past to learn the lessons and move the head in a tough time.
For me the source of most effective learning is Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s effervescent “Anand” For me, the character Anand spreads not just cheer and smile on screen but also lit an eternal flame of joy within my soul; his screen persona taught me “life should be big and not long” and that spreading of joy is greater than owning riches of the world. It inspires us with its reflective truths of life.
I have seen the movie more than 50 times and It helped me to hold myself together in my hardest of the time. The happy face of Anand even when suffering from cancer taught me a big lesson that Death is Just a Moment and we kill our whole life thinking about it. I really realized that we stretch and pull the sadness of the future and bring it onto today’s happiness … and we make our present unhappy.
The row of death in the first half of the year 2020 has put us in the state of melancholy. Infect, we all are upset with what happening around us. But the moment you heed the eternal dialogue “Babumushoi, zindagi aur maut upar waale ke haath hai … usse na toh aap badal sakte hai na main” you receive a ray of positivity that life and death is in the hands of God … neither you can change Nor I. Same is the case with all of us. One day or the other we are going to die. I must admit that the peculiar circumstances of that moment too helped me adopt “live-love-laugh” as my life mantras forever.
The discussion between the two is parallel to Krishna’s lesson to Arjun through the epic of Gita. Like Arjun, Bhaskar is vulnerable and uncertain on the frontline of life but learns a lesson from the noble actions of “Anand” who like Lord Krishna stands as the ultimate symbol of pure, untainted eternal joy.
Anand picks to live life in the face of death. To smile so much that every glare is gone. He lets the joy of living hide the fear of death. He chooses to share all the love and laughter he can with everybody leaving a deep imprint on the minds of everybody. One of the classics by the genius filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Anand discovered the essence of life through the lead character played by Rajesh Khanna’s philosophy of life with a smile. As the line in the film goes, ” Anand mara nahin, Anand marte nahin.”means Anand is not dead, Anand are immortal.
Dr. Manjeet Jain
Principal – Jain Heritage School – Belagavi
The author has written dozens of articles for various newspapers like TOI, DNA etc. He has been writing blog for SPEAKING TREE since 2010.