When a pair of sneakers is all that you want

I was watching ‘Children of Heaven’. I do not intend to tell the story or write a critic coz I think it’s a must watch for one and all. But I need to blog about it anyways coz it put my thinking caps on..

The lead role of the movie who is an eight year old lad, with a bright twinkle in his eye, misplaces his lil sister’s shoes. As it happens to all of us, at that age, they were too scared to tell their parents about it. And then comes the silver lining on the dark cloud. Or you may call it icing on the cake, I wouldn’t really mind. The gleam in the eye of the lad grows brighter jus like a sparkle. An announcement on the notice board mentioning a running race catches his attention. What’s interesting is :

First Prize : Two weeks at a holiday camp and a set of sport suits.
Second Prize : Two weeks at a holiday camp and school supplies.
Third Prize : One week at a holiday camp and a pair of sneakers.

With a strong resolve to win THIRD prize, nothing more and nothing else, he enters the race. All for the want of a pair of sneakers. A long and tiring race and he keeps missing the focus in between but he suddenly remembers his sweet lil sister waiting for the sneakers. In the end we see him running toward the finish line and Bingo he hits it. The first line that he utters to his principal after the race : “Did I come in Third Sir?”. His principal explains that he has indeed stood first and there’s a glow on everyone’s face except the lad. He sobs uncontrollably for not getting the third prize and getting the first. Tears start rolling down his eyes. I would presume, you do not have a heart if you don’t cry when he tries to overcome insurmountable grief of winning the first prize and not the third.

After a few minutes, I gave a sheepish smile to myself for I cried too. Infact, may be not for that, I did cry jus like that cute lil fella wheneva I won the 1^st prize coz I badly wanted to bag the 3^rd. May be all of us do without realizing it. Ain’t it? Didn’t we want just a pair of sneakers and instead we got a ‘two week holiday at a camp’? And didn’t we feel so gloomy about it?