I want to go on living even after my death!

"I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am
grateful to God for giving me this gift, this possibility of
developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me". -
Anne Frank

Just finished reading 'The Diary Of A Young Girl - Anne Frank' and my
mind is at a loss of words. The picture on the front cover (ISBN
9788189998448) has taken over my senses with her shiny eyes and wide
smile. However hard may I try, I can't manage to imagine this pretty
girl emaciated, bald and dressed in rags, dying an ugly death in some
rotting Concentration Camp of Bergen-Belsen. Its the smile that can
never be wiped off that loving face.

Ever since I read a chapter- 'quack, quack, chatterbox' in my English
textbook in class 7th or 8th -- which was an adaptation from an early
entry of this diary-- I've been mesmerised by this girl. I didn't know
anything about Holocaust then, but yet, couldn't refrain from being
influenced by her. With time, I read further, thought further, and
happened to find many references to this book and the Holocaust. Each
time they were mentioned, I vowed in my head to read this book as soon
as possible. But as it's a fact that, 'you have to reach a specific
level of maturity before you can imbibe a book to its full extent.'
Hence I am truely lucky that I was able to refrain from reading this
book till now. After following the history of World War II in a myriad
of sources- Movies, Reader's Digest, Safari, Discovery, NatGeo,
History-channel, and many more... The images speaking a thousand times
more than the words. The urge to embark on a journey reached a
critical juncture. I stepped on a page of Holocaust by Wikipedia, the
details there, its sheer macabre tone, moved something within me, and
I guess that was the point which sent this strand of thoughts moving
inside my brain. The number of people killed, the methods applied, the
ruthlessness, mechanisms of easy mass murder. All of them bringing a
mixture of emotions-- Surprise, Anger, Sadness, Pity, sometimes an
Ironic smile-- but all penetratingly sharp.

I am not indulging in my well-suppressed wish to write about all that
I gathered from these sources. The reader can find whatever he seems
fit by himself. But the point I wish to draw attention to is that,
even in those circumstances, the days of misery, of hopelessness, and
mourning, some minds didn't stop living. And these were the same minds
which contributed a lot to the present day attitude of the world to
the history by keeping their thoughts alive.

Anne Frank was a plain Dutch girl, as she herself mentioned, before
her teens. But that young girl, in just 2 years of confinement in a
shared secret hide-out metamorphosed in a thinking machine upto the
grade of philosophy giants. In the time when everyone around her was
absorbed in their own personal version of hell, she blossomed with
radiance. Not that she was not unhappy. It was just that she had found
the trick to split herself in two Annes, both taking dominance at
different times.

This diary is not a book for everyone. The reader needs to earn a
degree of mental equilibrium, the ability to weigh the circumstances
with the emotions. He needs to promise to think before, during and
after reading this book. To ponder and reconstruct the scenarios, to
rearrange the facts learned till now, to thread all the details in a
single string. And above all, see everything from the Other Side.
Imagining himself in those situations, identifying with the sufferers.

I admit, I myself have not reached the optimum level yet, and I try
continuously to evolve further a bit. Hence there are chances there
might be some discrepancies in my views and opinions. There are they
might change in the future. So, I presume I'll always have to be ready
to accept any criticism.


***

(I am leaving this post unfinished in a hope that with time I would be
able to expand my thought-horizons, that with time someone would bring
something new to my notice. So its a humble request to everyone
visiting this page, please please share your views in the comment box
so that the quest for knowledge keeps going on, and the thoughts
continue to flow in a positive direction. For Which in the end this
Nacheez can rest assured that he has tried his little bit in making
this world a better place.)