फिर भी न आया लुटेरा 🍃

Once upon a time, I had to convey my lecture on The Last Leaf, a short story by O. Henry, to high schoolers. That got to be the most memorable moment of my entire lifetime, which I'll cherish forever. The teenagers are the most intelligent, wise, and creative students to work with. From the questions they raised to the answers they interpreted, I looked into the depths of hope given to everyone by Mr. O. Henry. 

I'll cry a river because I miss my students, “Ma'am, how's the new origami different than your paper boat?” 

“We used to have rough pages from our mathematic copy on the last page while you all bought papers for origami." 

While researching more about the story, I became aware of the Lootera film directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. It was adapted from The Last Leaf. I'm completely against the idea of making a movie out of a book. Just to grasp how irritating it could be, I welcomed the notion of watching the movie with a pile of unchecked homework, only to convince voices in my head. 

I never thought I would leave 2013 without watching Lootera!

Disasters happen many times in human history. We kick happiness to embrace pain!

The story began with pneumonia, while the movie began with coughing because of tuberculosis. The television screen, page number 28 in the book, and my medications for abscess tuberculosis next to my bed stared at me with shock and horror. चलो कहानियां में हम साथ बैठ के खुद पर हंसेंगे सही| 

Phew! The plot plan was different. The ending made my pillow smudged with tears, my water bottle empty, and a panic attack with a sense of a never-ending memory. A brilliant box of abnoxious yet pleasant memory is stored in binary in the head. If only I were a computer, I would have deleted it without having to hold emotions,

सूखी सियाही

देती हैं गवाही?

Oh! Hypothetical questions require only cognitive understanding. 

I blame books for shaping the petal of emotions in my heart at times, and I'm so grateful to Allah Subhanawultala for blessing me with the emotions through which I can balance a life filled with hurdles and laughter. They're incomplete without each other. If the movie ended on a good note, it would tell me lies struck with thunderbolts to live this life. And the story ended exactly like the last leaf our books hold as bookmarks, with a nostalgic fragrance and a pungent memory.