Anne was here

Since small, I had always been fascinated by good and honest writings. Though I tried to be a good writer, something inside me always tells me that I can’t. It’s just too hard. I could never be too honest and be completely open when I know people other than myself would read it. So, it’s no wonder that people’s biography always intrigued me. It’s the honesty in writing that always made me want to read more. And the most interesting of all is none other than  “Anne Frank: Diary of a young girl.”

I came to know about this book around 4-5 years ago. After watching “The Pianist”, a Nazi occupation movie in Poland, I did a small research on the net about other documentations of the war and Anne Frank’s diary came top in all my Google searches. Having read the raving review, I later persuaded my boyfriend who later became my husband to buy me a copy of the book from Kinokuniya in Kuala Lumpur.  We searched almost the entire book store and I must say, it is not a small bookshop at all. It is probably the biggest in South East Asia.  

It was almost 30 minutes before I finally held a copy of Anne Frank’s diary in my hands. It would be shorter if I just ask the store assistant, but it’s my habit to find it myself first before asking.. A habit that is not economical at all, I must admit. It felt surreal… holding other people’s diary in my hands, and kind of guilty too for wanting desperately to read it.

I finished reading it in three days. mainly because I still have to go to work and do on calls and stuff. Did I cry? Of course! I am a weeper. I will cry for anything. It’s just so sad and so compelling at the same time. Anne, never really get to finish her diary because her family was discovered hiding in the annexe after 2 years of hiding. But at least her dream of becoming an author that make changes in other people’s lives did come true. Isn’t it amazing how one person could still reach out to the world and touches so many lives even long after she is gone. The power of writing… Makes me determined to write more seriously from now on. [*wink]

So knowing my deep interest in Anne Frank’s diary, my husband, being the darling that he is… brought home a DVD of the same title amongst the many software books that he borrowed from Nedlands library. I watched it immediately.. cried so many times and straight away wrote this blog entry. I enjoyed the movie so much even though it is in black & white. The entire story took place in the small annexe, with no picturesque view, no clever computer generated images… just the simplicity and the honesty that were simply breathe taking.

The most memorable line in that motion picture was by Frets Pfeffer, “ This has been such a shock to me. I have always thought of myself as Dutch. I was born in Holland, my father was born in Holland, and  my grand father… and now after all these years you know….”   

Amazing… amazing how they managed to stay in hiding for 2 years yet able to do amazing things. And amazing how we could take ours for granted and do nothing with our lives every single day.