My Sister's Keeper

I wrote this article a year or so ago when I first saw the movie My Sister's Keeper. I had read the book before that, cried for an entire day and was shaken for much longer (if not a month then at least a fortnight). I finally had the guts to sit down and watch the movie, and that's when I just couldn't hold it back. You see, every time I get effected physically, mentally, emotionally or psychologically, the only thing I can think of doing is picking up a pen and writing down what ever comes to my mind. And so, I decided to write a movie review on this story. The only reason I opted for the movie over the book was that the book is so much more complicated and has so many folds to it that I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it justice at that particular point of time. I've blogged about my sister, Gayatri, before and it was because of her that the movie/ book struck me so strongly.

I don’t know how many of you have a sibling, the age doesn’t matter, but I know I have a younger sister. And I know the kind of bond that we share is truly special, and if anyone, anyone at all, tried so much as to even touch that, they would be real sorry. Yet in this movie, I see an 11 year old girl who actually tries killing her own sister; a sister who she knows is sick and needs her help, a sister who she knows will always love her even if she doesn’t help, a sister who she needs to protect...from cancer.

And that is just where things start getting messed up. Anna is an 11 year old girl who has never seen a ‘normal day’, not even as an infant. As it happens, she was conceived to be a genetic match for her older sister, Kate, who suffers from acute leukaemia, a form of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow of one’s body. Kate’s parents, Sara and Brian, and her younger brother, Jesse, weren’t genetic matches for her, and so, her parents decided to try save their first child by means of ‘creating’ a genetic match. Thus, since the day Anna was born, her body has been used to save her dying sister. It started off with Anna’s umbilical cord, and though that saved her elder sister temporarily, the illness never really got completely cured, and Kate has been in and out of the hospital for the past few years.

Anna is ignored by her parents quite completely. They don’t ask her whether she’s comfortable going into surgery frequently, they take it for granted. A time comes when she has to give away one of her kidneys, and doing this means that she can never play soccer, do cheerleading or become a mother; and yet again, her permission is not sought but assumed. That is, till she starts asking for her rights. All she wants is the right over her own body; to be able to say whether or not she wants to donate her body, and its organs, to her sister. And to do this, Anna fights in the court with the help of a lawyer she hired. As it turns out, her lawyer, Campbell, agrees to fight this case because he suffers from epilepsy and often loses control of his own body, hence relating to Anna.

The movie shifts perspective from person to person, never really focusing on any one person. So, just when you start believing that Anna is being selfish for not even trying to help her sister, you are taken through Anna’s life, rather than Kate’s, and you see that she has never been able to live life to the fullest. Even though she is younger to Kate, Anna has to live like the older sister, never quite having the care free life younger sisters can enjoy. And just when you start believing that their mom, Sara, is the monster mom for having slapped Anna for demanding this basic right and fighting the law-suite against her child herself (being an ex-lawyer), you are taken to Kate’s life and you see the kind of things Sara has done; she sacrificed her whole life just who help her daughter, giving up the successful career that made her who she really was; she went bald just so Kate wouldn’t feel embarrassed of stepping out hairless due to her chemotherapy.

And in the middle of all this chaos lies Jesse, the brother that never really was a part of the family. His parents didn’t even know about his life or school, till they are suddenly told that he suffers from dyslexia. And to cope with that he is sent off to boarding school.

What really makes the entire thing feel so up close is that all this is strung through Kate’s diary, a book that shows each of her family members individually. The diary is a source through which we, as the audience, get to know that Kate feels responsible for ruining her family and their lives completely. This movie is a true tearjerker, really bringing out the true meaning of family, that of sister hood and mother hood.

To view the original post, go to:

http://blog.buzzintown.com/2010/06/why-my-sisters-keeper-is-special/

Stardom

If you guys don't already know, I study at Vasant Valley School. The school is absolutely the most brilliant system I have ever seen, and accepted that I haven't seen all that many, but I have seen enough to know how to differentiate between a good system and a bad one. As part of trying to develop students into well rounded individuals, they help us take part in a variety of activities, like the one organised on the 18^th of February for star gazing.

When I reached the school, the terrace was crowded with children.  Kids from junior school were all there, standing in queues in front of the telescopes, waiting to see the moon. True, the moon looked hazy and yellow, without any craters. Yet, the excitement level could not be subdued by that. One boy had got a laser torch and was busy making patterns on passing air planes, becoming the most wanted boy there. Another girl had gotten her camera and was taking beautiful pictures of the moon.

Full Moon

But the boy that caught my attention was from class four. I’ve known him for a few years and his cuteness has never not made my heart skip a beat! When I started talking to Anirudh Kaushik, he showed me Orion, and told me there was a new star being formed close by. When I asked him how a new star is formed, he was stumped. Pulling me by my hand, he went to someone he thought would know the answer – his older brother. When we couldn’t find the answer there, we looked up a Blackberry. But the explanation flew over our heads. Finally, we approached the science teachers, who directed us towards a man we thought was a scientist.

With the scientist’s stern nature and precise vocabulary, all I got was a gist of three sentences: ‘there are lots of gas and dust particles. When the temperature and pressure rise, they come together. This forms a star.’ I figured this much was enough to satisfy his curiosity and very soon, every student present had heard this version of the birth of a star.



Birth of a Star



However, less than a few minutes had passed before Anirudh was tugging my arm again. “Didi didi, I forgot!” Laughing I asked him what a dust particle was. His face told me I needed to explain. Then, I asked him about temperature. He explained this to me in an animated voice, with plenty of hand gestures. Happy, I demonstrated pressure to him, by pressing his head down. He understood in no time at all. Eventually, he seemed to comprehend the entire concept.

I thought the job was done. However, he came to me fifteen odd minutes later, wanting me to repeat the story again. I realised that he needed input that would last, something interactive and memorable. So, I conducted a short and sweet skit with a group of children, while Anirudh watched on. Each child became a dust particle, and when I said “GO” and moved my hands around to indicate rise in temperature and pressure, they circled and came towards one point.

The Play

The expression on Anirudh’s face made a few things quite certain in my mind. First, this was the only time he had actually figured out the answer. Second, it wasn’t going to leave him in a hurry. And third, every child in his class was going to hear about it the next day.

This small incident made me realise something many educationists around the world still don’t understand  something that Vasant Valley has been implementing for years. Traditional methods of learning are not efficient. If a child rote learns, his/ her exams may go off well, just like Anirudh was able to parrot the statement to every one for the first few minutes. However, that learning doesn’t stay with a person very long, needs constant repetition and is near impossible to apply. Instead, interactive learning, which is active and forms a kind of story or something else that is easy to remember, usually stays with a person for much longer, exactly like the play got crystallised in Anirudh’s mind. And that is the kind of learning we need today.