I watched my daughter watching this movie alongside the other weekend. I actually wished I could turn back the time. No, it’s not about turning back the clock but stopping the time for millions of reason. Am I talking about time traveling? It felt like having clasping her through this movie, yes, heaven does have a place on earth. She is growing – though I’m guilty as charged for not be able to spend time when I’m with her, duly posted to Dhaka. But, then – I’m preparing to move, once again. I wished I could stay there (just for this moment) forever, holding her – but the movie went on. Time stool still.
She is almost there, 7 is waving at her from the other side of an open door. And it is in only a few days she will walk through into a room I can’t enter. “Don’t go”, I whispered caressing her silky hair (the one she inherited from her mother) a bit ago, “don’t go”, I laughed – not knowingly what I said, “don’t grow”, and she laughed back at me, time flies, her eyes said, this is life, Baba.
It was 2003, perhaps a Barnes and Noble’s store, this 550 pages book made its way through my economy class luggage with other 19 books I carried from US. I wish my daughter takes up the habit of reading a book a day from her mother, who even reads while taking meal. And, from the book, Alba, this 5 years old girl travels time as her father did. While she was talking to Henry for the first time, I hold my daughter a bit tighter; I felt heavenly when Henry talks back to Clare about Alba, she being beautiful and smart! Wish you could see his expression. Alba, perhaps tried to save her father when he dies at her fifth birthday.
And, then when Henry travels back to Clare at eight, seems to be one of those times I rewind hundred times.
Are you married?
Yes, I am.
Is your wife a time traveler?
No. No, thank God.
Do you love her?
Yes. Very much. What’s wrong?
Nothing. I was just hoping you’re married to me.
Here, Henry could have assured she being the one, but Audrey subtly abstained putting this there – this is the power of writing. I once read a chapter by Sol Stein, “Competing with God: Making fascinating People” while creating a vivid characters like Clare or Alba.
When adult Henry met her mother, the score felt dreamy, beautiful and emotional. Initially, I actually bought couple of these tunes and then – eventually had to buy the whole album. Just like the movie creeps up on you and gets in to your heart, it stays with me long after I stop listening to it, just as the book or the movie stays with me long after I have read or seen it. Her mother, who he had watched her die hundreds of times, and he met in the train – the score stands out of the rest.
When it comes to the last scene, I don’t want to talk about it. The book has a different version she being 82 meeting Henry, 42 for a short while.
The outcome, even when I’m not writing for months, I’m now all over writing about it.
Redemption 