‘Let the world change you…and you can change the world.’
‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ traces the journey made across the heart and soul of South America by one of the the biggest revolutionary icons in the history of Latin American, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, better known as ‘Che’ Guevara, accompanied by his friend, Alberto Granada on a beat up 1930s Norton christened as ‘The Mighty One’ (which ‘peed’ oil, backfired and had the inadvertent tendency of skidding across the road at any apparent indication of a turn).
The journey starts with the young and impressionable, slightly asthmatic medicine student, Ernesto (or Fuser, as he was addressed to by Alberto) and the brash, know-it-all, biochemist Alberto determined to scale the length of the continent on their motorbike, leaving the beautiful Patagonian landscape of Argentina (Dec’ 51), crossing over to Chile (Feb’ 52) via the Andes amidst chilling snowfall, reaching Peru (Mar’ 52) to the largest leper colony in South America, San Pablo, navigating across the Amazon to eventually reach Colombia (Jun’ 52) and Venezuela (Jul ’52), covering a distance of more than 13,000 kms.
The beauty of the movie lies in the subtle manner in which it has portrayed the evolution of a young, impressionable human being with upright ideals into man who was set to change the world view of the Latin American world. When they embark on this journey, their only objective is to probably ‘travel for travel’, have fun on the way (‘get laid in every town, if we are lucky’, as Alberto says), and come back to lead normal, distinguished lives as practitioners of medicine. This facet of their objective remains till the time Ernesto bids farewell to his sweetheart, Chichina till the time of the failed-attempt-at-seducing-bike-mechanic’s-wife-run-for-life.
The change starts becoming apparent once they cross over the Andean landscape and see the plight of the farmers being thrown off their land by unscrupulous landlords, the manner in which they are trying to unite themselves to combat the problems and issues common to them all, people homeless and workless leaving their native places, reaching out for work in mining quarries at the risk of their lives, the way in which their indigenous civilization was destroyed by the onslaught of European ‘civilization’ (the memorable sequence at Machu Picchu, the cradle of the Incan civilization). The event which probably did contribute the most to ensuring what Ernesto had in front of his life, was their stay at San Pablo among the lepers. The most portentous scene in the entire movie is the one in which Ernesto, on the night of his birthday (and the final night at San Pablo, which he was celebrating with the doctors and other members of the colony at the northern bank of the Amazon), jumps across the river to spend his final night with the lepers staying on the southern bank. It was portentously metaphorical in ways more than one: the jump across the river implying that Ernesto had made up finally made up his mind on what lay ahead for him and was leaving the distinguished life for which he was preparing himself: the remark of the onlookers that ‘no one had ever swam across the river as long as one remembers’: the lepers (societal rejects) egging him on towards them and rejoicing in his triumph over the tidal currents of the Amazon.
The haunting B&W images of the folks he had experienced on the journey which changed his world view of life around him are thought invoking (like I always feel, its B&W which actually brings out the true colors of life).
All in all, an amazing story put together which shows the coming of age of Ernesto to Che, a changed man out to change the world. Kudos to Walter Salles, the stellar performances of Gael Garcia Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna, and the absolutely stunningly captivating soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla.
Sunday morning (though its past noon now, but its the early part of Sunday for me), and its been a fairly fulfilling weekend till now.
In continuum with my previous post, I must say that the stand taken by the Indian govt. on the inhuman treatment meted out to the hapless souls aboard the NW Airlines, Flight # 42 is laudable. But what doesn’t enthuse me in the least is the fact is that the Dutch govt. has still not issued a formal apology for this action, although their Indian ambassador has apparently conveyed ‘deep regrets’. (In diplomatese, there is a difference between regret and apology). All this after subjecting these men to inhuman conditions, no access to the Indian embassy, or their families…asking them questions about ‘why do you grow a beard’ and ‘who taught you the Quran’…has it come to this now that any sanely practising, Allah fearing adherer of Islam would be questioned on the very basis of his faith? And to top it all, which of course doesn’t come as a surprise, is the US govt’s justification of this act. Mistakes do happen, but then you should have the courage to gracefully accept them and apologize. Would this have been accepted by the Western world, had we Indians subjected a Westerner to a similar plight?
I’d just like to juxtapose this event against one of the airborne terror alarm events which happened yesterday (there were apparently 7 diversions to flights in a span of 24 hours due to terror alerts, as reported by TOI today). In one such event, there was passenger who was carrying a stick of dynamite in his luggage; however, after some interrogation was let off as it turned out that although he wasn’t carrying the stick for explosive purposes, it was against airline security policy to let it on board. It turns out that this passenger was a US citizen, apparently not a brown Asian. I dread to think of the possibility of a similar situation being encountered by a brown Asian (and to top it, a Muslim)…another plain open-and-shut case of an Islamic fundamentalist Jehadi conspiracy of blowing up airplanes in mid-air?
I’ve been reading news and comments regarding the arrest and subsequent release of the 12 ‘Mumbai born Indian’ passengers at Schipol airport. It has really made me ask this question to myself again, and which is something I am fairly certain any thinking Muslim bought up in today’s age would be doing too. Being a Muslim, has it become so very imperative that I keep my identity disguised? Have people around become so very skeptical about having ‘men sporting beards, wearing a long kurta & pajama, and speaking in an oriental language’ around them that they raise an alarm at the drop of a hat? Because the way it has been reported, I guess that was the only fault of those men who invited their own plight by spending the night in a detention center getting their cavities searched. This is probably what best exemplifies ‘racial discrimation’ in one of its real life avatars. Something akin to the manner in which the Jews got persecuted by the Nazis, except that there are no gas chambers now…just Guantanamo and et al.
“Asian? Bearded? Traditional clothes? MUSLIM?? Aaaah…please step aside as we frisk your belongings and all orifices in your body for suspected WMDs.” Is this what it means to be part of a world where the ‘so-called’ Big Daddies advocate the supremacy of equality and wax eloquent about making the world a better place to live in?
I do not deny the importance of security aboard public conveyances, nor am I advocating any form of life-taking activities of innocent humans. Everyone today acknowledges the fact that there are forces which are out to wreak havoc on the socio-econo-polit structure of some nations (which I don’t really feel the need to name…). Its high time that rather than looking for the terrorist outside, they start to search for the devil within. Isn’t it something which calls for a soul-searching to understand about what is it that is actually plaguing their nations (when I say nations here, it doesn’t mean the people living within – I imply policy)? If there is actually somebody out there to do harm to you, he is in all probability out there because of two reasons. One, you have wronged him, or second, that your actions have been misunderstood. If its reason number one, then you probably deserve it. But then, men running nations err more often than the men who are being ruled. And due to their fallacies, its the common man who ends up bearing the brunt of the brute. So it is upto the men drafting the policies to explore their faults and then atone. However, if its reason number two, you still need to make the man after you life understand your standpoint in order to make your good intent clear.
In both situations, you would need to reach out to the one who is after you to understand and appreciate his point of view, and to make him understand and appreciate your point of view (where’s the brotherly arm around you to make you feel part of a global fraternity?). That is, if you wish to reach an amicable settlement of affairs. (Else, there would still be many more Lebanons, Afghanistans, Iraqs).
Coming back to the question where I started off, I know a lot of folks would disagree with me on the point, saying that this the suffering you’ll need to go through due to the actions of some ‘similar looking individuals’. I would want to disappoint them by not agreeing to their logic (because, not everything in this world actually works on logic and rationale, and I don’t think I need to delve in details on the cons of generalizations and judgmentalism).
I am a fairly practising Muslim, a thing I was born with, and after discovering whatever I could over the span of my life about my religion, it makes me feel proud and fulfilled. I am your regular guy next door, who enjoys his job, his books and music, his job (plus the occasional date once in a while), just in case you were wondering if I too was the archetypal AK47 toting guy in faded greens. But I do have an amount of respect for the individuals whose visages I’ve mentioned above, and who are being subjected to discrimination for adhering to their faith.
The actions of a non-thinking segment of my community cannot really deter my association with my faith, nor can the vociferations of a cabal out to prove me guilty for adherence to my faith.
Do I hear an accusation…’Islamic fundamentalist’ somewhere?
I’ve been contemplating for a fairly long time now on this…I mean Blogging…maybe its just that there was a lot of inertia within me which I had to actually overcome. But then, there has been a huge sabbatical (and a huge one for that) since the last time I actually penned down something (penned??). Come to think of it…the manner in which I remain connected (apart from the time I am engrossed in other mundane ‘more important’ daily stuff), blogging is maybe the only more convenient option left for me.
Now that I’ve started, I do hope that I do keep myself to it and stick to posting on a regular basis. Need to keep the content pouring in…
For that matter, there are a lot of things on which I could actually start discoursing…the war on Lebanon (for some reason, the grisly images are still pretty fresh in my mind…its just that this was the first thing which randomly came to my mind…no other particular reason), music, books and above all Life, Death and the journey in between.
The journey’s begun…let’s see how long more before the end….
Kandisa - Indian Ocean
Dark Night of the Soul - Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, David Lynch 
Sewn Together - Meat Puppets
