Bridge to Terabithia

It made me think, made me think about things I hadn’t thought about in a long long time. But what a refreshing change! The mad pace of the past few months had almost made me lose touch with something that used to define me once upon a time. When I decided to watch the movie, I had no clue that it forayed into the realm of a child’s imagination, fantasy as many of the adults prefer categorizing the genre as. Every day I hear things and see evidence of the fact that children are growing too fast in the world of today. We don’t hear of imaginary friends anymore except when they are associated with some psychological disorder caused by anxiety or exploitation of some kind. We don’t come across flights of fancy which make forts of cardboard boxes and kingdoms of gardens and trees. All this has been replaced by much more sophisticated toys and games which leave no scope for a child’s own imagination. It is despicable how we pride ourselves on our progress and development without realizing how we are stealing and snatching away the very essence of childhood from our children. I remember my childhood which was filled with fantasies of fairies and pixies and enchanted castles and large kingdoms when I was 6. This soon turned into a thirst for adventure with Famous Five, Secret Seven and the Five Find Outers and Dog. Soon enough I discovered the wonderful treasure trove in the form of the classics, which again helped me to transcend boundaries, geographies and cultures to get a taste and flavor of what children in other places were like. Whether it be the naughty Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn or the wonderfully creative Anne of Green Gables or the The Little Princess, I grew up with children who lived in a free world with none of the complexities of today’s world, who did not worry about what they are wearing to school today or whether they own the latest tech gadgets. They were children of nature, who learnt from experience, who possessed sharp minds that were put to immense mischief of a harmless fun kind that taught them lessons that would define them as the people they would grow up to be. I’m not denying the fact that there was misery and suffering back then too, difficulties that a lot many children had to live through, issues they had to face very early on in life, but the others by far were, or at least seemed to be, much more blessed than the richest child is in our world in this day and age.  

It pains my heart sometimes to see the indifference to all things natural nowadays. Yes, people do talk of going back to the basics and going herbal and healthy in eating and living but that too, is a very glorified, glamorous version of what I remember as nature from childhood. Even if the surrounding is left out of the discussion, one still wonders if the loss of the same experiences is costing our civilization much more than the innocence of childhood. The movie was a welcome break from the breakneck monotony of today’s fast paced lives lived by the children and adults alike. The realm of a child’s imagination is a wonderful place to lose one’s self. I loved this movie ‘coz it reminded me of all that defined my own childhood. A must watch for all adults who remember being children once!