The Water Element

I am loving Deepa Mehta.  Thanks to the magical invention of Netflix, a movie called Water arrived in my mailbox this week.  So long since I put it on my queue that I had no idea what kind of film it was when I put it on.  I devoured the DVD- watching all of its features, listening to every bit of commentary, absorbing all of its artistic and musical gifts.  Deepa (we're friends, aren't we?) wrote and directed this heart-wrenching story about the life widows in India.  According to the film there is a misinterpretation of the Hindi text that describes the fate of widows.  The film is set in 1938 when Ghandi is becoming popular.  It takes place in a ashram where widows are forced to live out their days piously until they meet their husbands in the afterlife.  The story follows women of different ages but focuses on the seven year old girl who is forced in  to the ashram after her fifty year old husband dies.  Like the other women in the ashram, Chuyia, as she is called, must wear only white (color of mourning) and have her head shaved. The women are permitted to eat one meal a day with no salt- as to not excite any desire! Imagine.

Many reasons I reacted so strongly, but truly it is the idea that fate can be determined by other people.  Yes I know that life brings forth certain truths that cannot be undone.  I have had my share.  Yet I think that for many of us we overlook our freedom.  I am reminded that power comes from choice, enabling us to create our own destiny.

Water is beauty, truth, sadness, darkness, and love.