EAT, PRAY, LOVE..!!

Julia Roberts is a great actress, and I knew this right from the time when I watched her first movie. But, I was completely dazzled by her performance in Eat, Pray and Love. I know I’m not a critic and though I can’t give the minute details as a critic does, I can certainly keep my opinion and say that I liked the movie.

The literature freaks and the English movie geeks must know what I’m talking about, but if you do not belong to any of the category, then let me give you a brief on it. Eat, Pray, Love is an English movie, based on the novel of the same name written by Elizabeth Gilbert, and Julia Roberts is its protagonist. Coincidentally  whenever I watch a novel based movie, I always stumble upon the movie first and then catch the novel. It was the same for this one too.

The movie had a very simple (and common) theme, which showed a disturbed and confused woman trying to get her identity and her peace of mind back. What kept me glued to it was her stylish and impressive ways to do that. Julia, who portrays Elizabeth in the movie, is a successful woman married to her Mr. Right. In spite of this, after a few months, she finds the charm of her relationship fading away, and the reason was she had been desperately trying to fit herself in someone else’s life. After a long fight with her husband (who seems to be a wife fanatic), she finally gets a divorce. And during this fight, a theater guy, David, grabs her eyeballs.

But, her desperation to seek peace leads to another devastating relationship as she could not get along with David. The only good thing that happens to her in it is she comes to know about David’s Guru and her Ashram in India where he learned the power of prayer. After a broken marriage and a botched relationship, Julia once again finds herself tangled into life’s cobweb. It was during a conversation with her best friend in which she realizes that in an attempt to make her relationships work out, she has completely lost herself.

She used to have a good appetite, a taste for food, and most importantly, she used to love herself. So, finally, she decides to take a break and go on a year-long tour to Italy, India and Indonesia. Her visit to the three ‘I’ countries aids her in finding the ‘I’ within her and the break brings her back from her numbness and teaches her to EAT, PRAY and LOVE. The movie ended on a lived-happily-ever-after note. Of course, there’s more in the movie but I had better cut to the chase as I don’t want my readers to doze off.

What I want to point out is in today’s life, this has become a common problem. We study, we work and we do every possible thing to make our life stable, organized and meaningful. At the beginning, the intensity is on peak but, suddenly, a day comes when you find yourself lost. In the movie, Julia found this out after a troubled marriage but nowadays, marriage isn't required to make things complicated. This might not be the case with everyone but most of us do become a victim of this struggle.

The reason why I can say it with such firmness is because I've been a victim of it. I’m 25 years old young lady with a Bachelor’s degree and a coincidentally landed job of a content writer with an in-between-low-to-moderate-salary that’s enough to support me. My parents aren't satisfied with my job, but I can understand their problem and they understand mine, and hence, our mutual understanding removes all conflicts between us. But, what I've always found difficult is to adjust myself with total strangers. Though most of the times I've succeeded in doing so, I had also encountered troubles. Right from the day when I left home and stepped into my first hostel, I've been trying to fit into places where I found no space for myself.

After staying eight years away from home, all my true colors blended to create a very strong, strange color that I had never known or seen before. Coincidentally  I too found out about this strange color during my conversation with one of my roommates in my last PG. I realized that I've become a chameleon. I realized that I camouflaged so wonderfully with others’ colors that I've succeeded in losing my own ones. However, I was very fortunate to find few true friends who helped me to keep up my basic values.

What saved me from turning completely insane were my short vacations to my Home Sweet Home, and these vacations helped me to restore my sanity and get my Zen back. When I’m at home, I eat well, I work, I read, I sing, I dance, I cry and I even get to enjoy the bliss of solitude. I even fight with my ever loving parents – arguing with my Dad on inter-caste marriage (which always leaves him suspicious :P), sulking when my dearest Mom scolds me and banging plates with my Sis when I’m hungry. I revived my colors for short time and then lost them again, and I grew tired of it. So, during my last vacation to home, I decided to shed off my chameleon characters and transform completely into ‘ME’ again.

This wasn't easy at all as I had to give up my extra politeness and the habit of nodding my head to avoid conflicts. So, I mastered the word ‘NO’ and I learned how to speak this word bluntly on one’s face. Here also, books helped me a lot. Surprisingly, the day I decided to do this, things started working my way. I started caring less for others and more for me, even if it meant that I was a bad girl for someone, I didn't give a damn to it. This year, I missed home a lot but cried a little less because I enjoyed being myself.

While watching Eat, Pray, Love, I found myself connected with the story because my life had some similarities with it. But, THANK GOD, I didn't have to travel to different places because my home acts as my rehabilitation center. After the movie ended, I returned from my flashback, but I got the moral, which clearly stated that every now and then, you must boost your morale to live your life the way you want to live and for this, the most important thing is to be in touch with yourself.

So, I would suggest every person to watch Eat, Pray, Love at least once (especially if you’re not very patient with books).

P.S.: That’s just a suggestion. So, if you yawn during the movie, I’m not to be blamed. ;)