Eat Pray Love

It was a lazy Saturday evening and I planned to binge-watch some movies on Netflix. One of the suggestions that Netlfix offered (courtesy: algorithm) was Eat Pray Love (2010). Perhaps it was the title that caught my attention and I decided to go for it. 

Halfway through the movie, I knew I was in love with Julia Robert's character, Elizabeth (Liz as she referred to by her friends). The resemblance that I found with her character is unimaginable. Being in love is not easy. It is a constant delirium of how much to give in and how much to withhold. As someone who has fallen in love and out of it it is quite daunting to see what Liz was going through. Liz's journey was emblematic of what many women in an unhappy relationship go through. However, Liz taking a break from her monotonous life and exploring Paris, India and later Bali is a reminder of what Woolf says about women being financially idenpendent and having a space of their own to create fiction. She was able to do this because she was not dependent on her husband for her finances which is not the case with many other women. To be married at a young age and to feel stuck in a marriage where the future seems bleak is a reality that many hesitate to discuss. Added to that is the guilt of not having borne kids which is what substitutes the idea of a happy family in the eyes of society. When Liz says that she has lost her appetite for food, the passion to look forward to another day it reminded me of the times I had fallen in love and how jarring that feeling can be of not being loved back the way you want. Life can be chaotic at times and it might be even more jarring when you see people all around you happy and content with their lives. Convincing yourself that things will be fine might seem like a solution but can be harder than imagined. That's the thing when you are in love, you give the opportunity to your someone to hurt you and that is the scariest part. You want to be in control of your inhibitions but you seem to be doing things that are no longer in your control.  But at the same time, the film also tells you to take chances. To trust someone after having been let down multiple times is a risk. How are you to know if you are not going to be hurt this time too? How do you even know that this is the "right" person? Your mind is resistant, your soul is resolute. 

One of the most spectacular scenes in the film is when  Richard opens up to Liz about the reason he is in India and tells Liz to forgive herself. It made me think about the burden of a failed relationship that we carry on our shoulders all the time; to rise above all the conundrum and forgive ourselves is the purest and most powerful emotion. To be able to cry until the negativity does not bow you down is liberating beyond all measures. To have someone tell you that it is okay to feel unhappy, that is okay to feel bad at times can be cathartic. And it requires someone like Richard who is as broken as Liz in many ways to tell you that it is okay to not have your life sorted at the moment. We are all humans trying to heal from our scars. At times it feels like the most impossible thing, it is nauseating, you are unable to breathe. It is at these moments you need someone to hold you and help you breathe through the madness. 

I hope we all find someone who makes us believe in the magic of this universe, who makes us feel loved no matter how inadequate we might feel at times. I pray we learn how to forgive others but most importantly, ourselves!