It is past 2.30 in the morning and I thought I should write about the movie – The Great Gatsby – Anusha and I went to see, a few hours back.
I was engrossed in the film based on the 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Leonardo DiCaprio looked terrific and he acted his part with class. It is about a man, Gatsby, who was passionately in love with a woman. Because he is poor, she marries someone else very rich.
In five years Gatsby comes back for her a very rich man – exceedingly rich – confident to woo her back. He flaunts his wealth especially through lavish parties in his grand home. She becomes interested in him now especially for his riches and encourages his attention and love. At the crunch time she deserts him. And makes him the culprit in a car accident that killed a woman while she was on the wheel. Finally Gatsby is shot dead by the husband of the woman who was killed in the accident.
The final lines of the movie sums up the story beautifully.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning —
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Driving back home, I spoke to Anusha about the fickleness of women – alluding to Daisy who was Gatsby’s obsession. Anu’s take on it was, some men in the film were equally weak. I had to agree with her.
Then I told her – Anusha Vincent is and will be a strong woman. I thought she nodded her head silently.
For me, I said, the greatest take-away from this film is how Gatsby’s singular devotion made him desire and achieve all the riches and grandeur he wanted. My daughter thought that such intense desires and their achievement also made people blind to other needs.
She is right, as usual. As the narrator in the movie says, ” he paid a high price for living too long with a single dream.”
I thought about the ordeal of finding the right partner for her and assured that it is okay to reject matrimonial interests till she found the right person of her desires and dreams. Making compromises wouldn’t be the right thing to do.
Today, May 22, completes 13 years since Service Square was started. We have planned sweet packets for the staff.
That reminds me, I have other dreams also, to live and die for.
I have written about them and released my desires into the ether. All that remains to be done is to work with singular devotion.