A not-so-friendly story
I know all the lyrics but I don’t have the voice to do justice to them. Isn’t this unfortunate? Perhaps. So much so I’ve started telling people that the song fitting my voice hasn’t been written yet. Similarly, I pick up words very easily, dialogues too from the screen. One of the many reasons why cinema so easily gels with me. Even if the subtitle is on, I don’t miss out on the frame. Nothing escapes my weary eyes. People, no matter where they are from, are good at least one thing. I am good at this. Moreover, if I hear a short speech and like it, I will will hear it twice and by the third time, I’ll be lip-syncing for the most part. One of the few reasons why my short journalistic career proved to be mighty fruitful.
In the long run, we are here to create stories. If not, we are here to regale them. There are millions of stories around waiting to be retold again and again. Lord forbid, we ever run out of stories to entertain each other with. That said, not every story is meant to warm the cockles of our godforsaken heart. Quite a lot of them are supposed to make us sit up with a crestfallen face. And those are the ones you never forget.
For instance, here is a tale featured in a beautiful film called Short Term 12 (2013).
Once upon a time, somewhere miles and miles beneath the surface of the ocean, there lived a young octopus named Nina. Nina spent most of her time alone making strange creations out of rocks and shells. And she was very happy. But then on Monday, the shark showed up.
“What’s your name?” asked the shark.
“Nina,” she replied.
“Do you want to be my friend?” he asked.
“Okay. What do I have to do?” said Nina.
“Not much,” said the shark, “Just let me eat one of your arms.”
Nina had never had a friend before, so she wondered if this was what you had to do to get one. She looked down at her eight arms and decided it wouldn’t be so bad to give up one. So she donated an arm to her wonderful new friend.
Every day that week, Nina and the shark would play together. They explored caves, built castles of sand, and swam really, really fast. And every night the shark would be hungry and Nina would give him another one of her arms to eat.
On Sunday, after playing all day, the shark told Nina that he was very hungry.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “I’ve already given you six of my arms, and now you want one more?”
The shark looked at her with a friendly smile and said, “I don’t want one. This time I want them all.”
“But why?” Nina asked. To which the shark replied, “because that’s what friends are for.”
When the shark finished his meal, he felt very sad and lonely. He missed having someone to explore caves, build castles, and swim really, really fast with.
He missed Nina very much.
Not a day goes by I don’t think of this story. And this despite the undeniable fact that I’ve been blessed with a few but very dear friends. I also wonder, what is the point of staying true to a lyric or a parable or a monologue when there is so much more to learn and we’ve got so little time left?
PS. Told this story to our intern and asked him what did he learn from it. He said, “We should stay away from sharks.”
PSS. Funny as it sounds, that is not the lesson. The lesson is much deeper and twofold. Not everybody can make a friend. Not everybody can keep a friend.
