Now thats survival. Jako rakhe saayian mar sake na koi. Read it to believe it.
The Pianist is a memoir by Wladyslaw Szpilman - a Jew musician belonging to Poland - spanning three years, 1942-45. Its a true survival story of a man who lost his everything to German anti-Semitism and World War II, very modestly written intriguing tale of what the people really went through in all those years. i would have discarded it as an exaggerated tell-tale had it been fiction - or even if the events werent confirmed by a German officer's (Wilm Hosenfeld - whose compassion saved Szpilman's life) contemporaneous diary entries.
In these three years of his extraordinary life, Szpilman contemplated suicide, changed hiding places, escaped German soldiers narrowly, starved and froze - all this and more, countless number of times - in other words, scraped death every now and then. He lost all his loved ones - his only worldly possessions that remained were a fountain pen and a watch. How he lived through this ordeal and kept himself sound and sane is a typical example of the amazing human survival instinct.
Mark Twain has rightly said, "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities, truth isnt". No wonder the 2002 Hollywood film based on this book grabbed three Oscars - actor Adrien Brody, director Roman Polanski and screenplay writer Ronald Harwood. The film has recieved many other international awards as well.
Thanks.
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