12th June 2019
TIME: 10.46 PM Duliajan, Assam, India
I intend to pen this article down as a diary entry. ‘Diary entry’ is essentially taught in most of the schools across India as one of the topics from the ‘Writing Skill’ section in the subject of ‘English language’. Most of us were given a situation to imagine and pen down about 150 words inside a box. Even drawing the box fetched us marks. There were only a few teachers who would actually appreciate students for writing good content.
While I don’t blame others because of paucity of time and other added responsibilities of preparing report cards or in some cases getting back to their loved ones to spend some time together. I guess most of us were encouraged to maintain personal diaries while we were growing up with a promise that nobody shall read them, save the writer. It is a wonderful habit because, at some point of time when you turn those pages from the past, it fills you up with so many emotions.
12 June 2019 is Anne Frank’s 90th birthday. Trust me; her quotes are so inspirational that they could brighten up anybody’s dull day. This is one of her most memorable quotes, ‘In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.’
I read ‘The Diary of a Young girl’ about the same age Anne had written it. Some of it, I didn’t understand as it was really deep and of course, I had forgotten most of it because you see we were never taught to understand and take seriously the non-fiction writings in particular and history in general. It is very sad when people justify how one subject is better than another. The classic example is, how science is much better than history because it teaches you to be rational. They go onto even justify that Albert Einstein was bad when it comes to remembering the dates of famous battles because he disliked history and his scientific prowess should be acknowledged and must be the way forward.
But they are the very people who forget that even Einstein existed at the same time the holocaust happened. Einstein said the following and it has kept me thinking over the past 14 years, “If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare me a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.”
Anne Frank’s diary has been translated into many languages. This year when I was teaching Hindi to my brother for his class XII boards, I stumbled upon one of the pages from Anne’s diary and the chapter was titled, ‘Diary ka ek panna’ (One page from the diary). Her diary is deep for someone at such a tender age and it makes the readers silent, often eerie silent. Her diary is also a testimony to those who deny that the Holocaust ever happened.
I was eagerly waiting for a Google doodle but I didn’t find any. But what I found next on the internet was even more beautiful. An online exhibition by Google Arts & Culture showcasing the Anne Frank House at Amsterdam and the early years from her life on her 90th birthday! It just brought a smile to my face and made me silent yet again.
To my utter amazement, I found out recently that Hilter’s Mein Kampf was one of India’s bestsellers. Though reading Mein Kampf openly in many countries is considered a great offence and I feel the offence is justified, yet it needs to be read to understand what exactly goes behind the minds of rulers and dictators who don’t think even once while killing hundreds and thousands of people or in this case millions!
I bought it a few years ago, though I haven’t read it entirely due to lack of time, I did read the chapter or unit which talks about ‘race and purity’. A superiority complex can inject so much of venom in the minds of people with the intent of finishing ‘the other’ and no one wins in such a battle. It is always an ‘Us Vs they’ battle. As we are now accessing digital content so rapidly, coming across certain excerpts from such books is becoming very easy with the intent of spreading propaganda. Sometimes, the screenshots forwarded without any verification is enough to instil hate and fear in the minds of people.
But no matter how much they try to spread hatred, lies and fear, there will be many others like Anne Frank both young and old to tell us the truth and what they felt and what were the chain of events because they have this immense faith that there are many good people who won’t let such a thing happen ever again!
They know that their writings will cause anger which this time won’t be a symbol for another wave of violence or aggression but anger for seeking respect, equality, fighting prejudices and above all demanding basic human dignity! This is why Anne Frank’s diary needs to be read more than propaganda material because it gives hope to resilient societies!
For those who still haven’t read the diary, read it and for those who are in Delhi and love spending their ‘off days’ outdoors, you can consider loitering around the weekend makeshift stalls in the connecting area between Ambience mall and DLF Promenade at Vasant Kunj and find Anne’s diary for Rs 100 only. I don’t like quoting amounts but may give it a thought because when you are paying Rs 20 per hour as parking fee for your vehicles in the malls, you would genuinely not mind paying Rs 100 for Anne’s diary.
Happy birthday Anne!
This is one of the images of the famous red-chequered diary I found on the Anne Frank House Official page.
