I don't know how many of you have read the book "Tuesdays with Morrie". I hope that you are inclined to once you've read my blog. It talks about the relationship of an old mentor and young student.
My Tuesdays for the past three weeks have been like the ones in the book. Every afternoon, I bother my old neighbor with general queries in life. I also end up sharing a good conversation over scrabble and of-course coffee and smokes. My 80 year old neighbor refuses to get old and I refuse to let her. Over a heated session of scrabble (because we are getting competitive and good over the time), we talk about our different mother tongues, our nationalities and the common love that we share of scrabble.
We youngsters, sometimes talk about a generation gap, we rebel against our elders, i am guilty of the same. But when you actually sit down with them and listen to them about a time gone by, there is so much to learn. As i sat with her today, i had a chance to learn about a time before the world war 2, the gradual transition of East and West Germany and their union in 1989. It was only after Germany hosted the world cup in 2006, every German after the long Fascist regime, felt proud of their country and hung out their flags.
There is so much to learn from a time gone by. If you get a chance, do sit out with an elderly person every once in a while. And just listen. Only listen.
Cheers!!
Wow... This one I had missed till now and its brilliant. There is actually so much to learn from people all around us. And more so since you are in a foreign land and whose history, whatever we know of is written in text books which we read in school. And as we all know, books will only tell you one side of the story, the winning side.
ReplyDeleteSo knowing things from the horse's mouth is a very enlightening experience I must say. You should ask your neighbor about stories from the WW2 and how they survived and how many sanctions they had and whether she was a pro-nazi or against it.
I myself went to the Anne Frank house here and there are sooo many things which one would realize when in a place like that, which we tend to ignore or are generally too busy to notice, What we are today, where we stand today, there is soo much that has happened in the past to make the world what it is...
nice one, your style is definately improving and I do look fwd to reading more of your blogs now :)
Thank you for reading.
ReplyDeleteI did ask her about the Nazi regiment, they refuse to even coin the term, they call it the Fascist movement. N she was against it, she thought that it gave Germans an inhuman face to the rest of the world.
Thats the reason why as on date, they have destroyed everything that was built by Hitler.