Sunday, February 22, 2015

Look who's honking



One Saturday morning, I spotted a piece of article lying on top of the car that just pulled up in front of my car. As I followed behind the car, I pressed my car horn to get the attention of the driver but the driver kept on going and seemed to have picked up some speed . Then just as I had hoped for, the traffic lights turned red and the car had to come a halt at the junction. The driver completely ignored my honking. When I tried to get into the lane besides the car, the driver made way for me. It was apparent that the driver might have mistaken me as some aggressive driver who was just trying to get ahead. Finally I pulled up beside the driver who turned out to be a lady and reluctantly she turned to look at me when I wound down my car window. I could not bear the thought that the article might drop off her car along the way and the person would be wondering what had happened to the article. Perhaps the person deserved to lose the thing but since I was so close to getting across the message, I was not going to give up. I was just simply amazed that the person could be so intimidated by my honking without even looking to see who and why I had been honking.

When we recall about the occasions  how we  have been forgetful and careless, these incidents are hilarious with hindsight. As one gets older, one experiences memory lapses and it is probably due to aging. There are also times when we misplace things because we are pre-occupied and not paying attention. Sometimes I find it burdensome to keep unhappy memories so I try to master the art of forgetting certain unpleasant incidences. It  is not easy to forget and move on as these unhappy memories have a tendency to cling on like leeches. We choose to remember what we want to remember but  when one cannot remember what he or she wants to remember, memory loss becomes a grave concern. Alzheimer disease accounts for one of the major causes for  dementia and  since memories form an integral part of a person, it is definitely tragic when one suffers memory loss.

At BAFTA this year Julian Moore won the best actress award for her role in Still Alice. When Dr Alice Howland , an ambitious linguistic professor  finds herself  having memory lapses such as losing words in the middle of her lectures and losing  bearing when she goes jogging, she visits a neurologist. When she is diagnosed with the early onset of the dreadful Alzheimer disease, she is devastated and Julian Moore has given the character another one of her best performances.

Boyhood won the best picture at BAFTA this year. Boyhood is interesting in  that the plot is a work in progress and the film has taken literally 12 years to make as the child actors grew into teenagers. All the actors participated in the writing process while the director keeps the general plot intact. The central theme of  Boyhood is  about  coming of age and though the theme is not novel, the plot is compelling indeed.

Both Still Alice and Boyhood are good films that deal with issues in real life and subjects that are realistic.

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