NOT A BOOK REVIEW
There is a calm wind blowing outside accompanied by a heavenly shower. The best time, for the mind to brood over anything and to dig deep into the canyons of your creativity to see if anything worth would sprout out from beneath the brain onto the blank white paper. Words, are sometimes elusive, putting you on a phase called “writer’s block”. I looked at my shelf to take note of the books that are chattering to one another trying to grab my attention. They are eagerly waiting to recite their tales.
‘The Book Thief’ suddenly took a leap out from the top
of the shelf and jumped into my hands. Oh Slowly! I screamed at it as I tried
not to miss catching hold of it. While I stood quiet shockingly in disbelief,
at what had just happened a few seconds back, the Book Thief giggled at me,
saying it was the No:1 International Best Seller, with an air of pride. Of
course! I smiled. The glistening hard cover of the book decorated in grey and
white hues, with the name printed on it in bright red color, caught my
attention. I slowly flipped through its pages, trying to breath in the
fragrance of the bright black words poetically layered on its fading yellow
pages.
“This is a story that will live with you”, a strange
voice uttered cautiously into my ears. And I replied that, I was looking
exactly for something that had a soul and that would live with me once I
finished reading it. Liesel Meminger; a small German girl, slowly caught hold
of my hands and led me to accompany her in the journey that is to follow here
after. I heard faint voices from every corner of the book, each character
making its introduction to me. Their voices are not faint anymore as I
gradually become a part of their lives.
I
thought I took a swift journey backward. Some sort of a time travel? Now, I
stand in Nazi Germany. Loud voices reverberating “Heil Hitler”, echoed in the
air. I could see flags embroidered with Swastika gliding in the German air. Liesel
did not give much attention to it, I wondered why, although I was engrossed in
what I had just seen. She took me to her foster parents, who seemed to me
initially like two individuals who got married to each other just to shout at
each other. But I realized that some iron ladies did have a voice in Germany, loud
enough at least to make a point to their husband!
A
small home, in the working-class background, where people toiled hard to make
both ends meet- that was where Liesel took me to. I witnessed how she began growing
up listening to the music born out from the Accordion that her foster father
played for her. She was the apple of his eyes and I knew it the very first day
I met him. I sat along with them, listening to the stories that her father
recited to her every mid night. He knew of her fears and her deep-seated pain
and the music that flowed from his Accordion soothed her wounded soul. Who
wouldn’t love to have a father like that?
Rudy Steiner, the boy of a kind, came running
to Liesel. He hardly noticed my presence. I realized that he was a boy who was
unafraid to make decisions. And regarding Liesel, I guessed, he had already
taken a decision. His gangly blue eyes glittered as he spoke to Liesel. She
knew it and ignored it. In fact, they knew each other so well. They played
together, went to the same school and together rode on their bicycles. He
accompanied her in all her mischievous tasks and she was there to cheer him up
when he ran like Jessy Owens. It was endearing to witness how beautifully and
slowly their story was developing, amidst the chaos in the outside world.
Certain love stories are weaved that way. And I wanted them to be together irrespective
of what was going to happen in their life. Because I knew deep inside that,
something was bound to happen.
The
presence of Max Vandenburg, a Jewish young man, brought along with him the
changes that were about to unfold. He came like a nightmare. A German family
giving refugee to a Jew and that too during the reign of Hitler. Fear ran
through my spine as I saw the impoverished face of Max. I wondered how long he
had been that way. Max reminded me of everything that was lost and gone
forever. I noticed that there was so much similarities between Liesel and Max.
They both nightmared. And I hardly slept as I apprehended the presence of
German Gestapo at the door steps of Liesel’s household anytime to grab the Jew
who was hiding in the basement.
Liesel
grew up and so does Max, slowly loosening the grip from their fears and finding
recluse in the world of books and words. By then, Liesel had already begun her
journey as a Book Thief. Stealing books, seemed to her like a master craft. Or
were the books actually waiting for Liesel? Anyways I will leave that for you
to find out just like how I leave you to find out what would happen to the
beautiful love story that was developing between Rudy and Liesel. Max dreamt of
taking Hitler on a fight one day and thought of living a normal life; an embodiment
of the collective Jewish psyche.
I could hear the music flowing out from the Accordion
and the waves hailing Hitler resonating in German air. The music clashed against
the slogans. There were long parades of Jews to the Concentration camps. Words,
words, words!!! the words of Hitler thundered in the air! I understood that words
had the power to hypnotize anyone. I got suffocated in the tumultuous Nazi air that
was burning in flames leaving behind only ashes. I ran helter-skelter not
knowing where to hide. Heaps of dead bodies mounted over one another, reminding
me of the dearth of humane emotions and the brutality that human beings were
capable of. I wanted to run back to the present. But I couldn’t. I heard the voice
of Death whispering to me that I had already been warned in the beginning that
this story would remain with me. And I stayed back there in the midst of
rubbles. This time my mind guiding me to find out a soul that was still breathing.
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