When Willie Wonka says in the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, “Everything in this room is edible. Even I am edible. But that would be called as cannibalism. It is looked down upon in most societies.” I wonder its relevance in our life. We all are ready for consumption universally. Humans are all food for thoughts be it physically, socially, economically, or culturally. We are a part of virtual food chain where each one of us has a role to play and one or the other amongst us is ready to gobble down the other in any positive or negative way required! It is all the matter of choosing the side. Today when I woke up, I realised that for me it is the same every time. Each day I manage to hilariously get up on the wrong side! However much I try to change the corner, it is always the wrong one. I tried and have been trying so hard since the day I can remember but this dilemma just keeps on rising within me. At the time I wanted to land on my feet right side up and not on my hind side. I have been trying hard to find the miraculous sunlight in the winter cold. That is how I remember zeroing down to one among many of my movie marathons at the time. I still remember when I watched Charlie and the chocolate Factory for the first time. I have been binge watching it since then regularly. When it is time to choose the side, I pick Willie Wonka. However much I liked (Charlie) the boy, I still ended up softening towards the crude factory owner Willie Wonka. His sarcasm and crassness speak to me every time I look at him on screen. I realised he was so me! Sharp yet innocent, cool yet dumb, magnanimous yet narcissist. All that made him human yet much more than that. I pitied him for throughout the movie and beyond. But then I realised that I was pitying myself. Trying to pick up fragments of my imaginative self, I somehow ended up coming closer to him. When he was trying to please his father, someone he looked up to, and in doing so he in fact started a self-war. His stiff demeanour is like so many of us. On the outside we all are perhaps the same harsh, rude, stern being but, on the inside, it is a different story. Like Willie we want perhaps to prove ourselves on each step to God knows who!

Those invisible faces of approvals never come out with their real face. The quest to be able to get accepted at every step of the way is where I become him. I always wanted to be like those people who I see chilling out by the pool but end up being a frightened soul groping to breathe in my imaginative dive in the deep waters. Hey Willie Wonka! I sometimes feel u need to leave me and catch hold of hand of those who need you like Charlie perhaps. They need you to pick their broken souls and make them find their way. I do not need it even though I am you. We cannot lie with each other. We cannot be friends for I cannot appreciate myself without praising you. But I do not like that. I pity you as I pity myself. I do not need those Oompa Loompas to teach me everyday lessons for the mistakes I made. Because my mistakes are many and I own all of them with pride. They are what made me who I am as they make everyone unique in themselves. You are my only one that I can look in the eye and shatter the mirror ahead because I am not afraid to be you. I know we are equal because our chocolate Factory of insanity and negative opaqueness is what we have created with our own sweat and blood. We need to take full credit for what we have done! You ran your own race, as I am running mine. It is still not over. There are still few more laps to go before I put my baton down. Although what we can do is kiss and make up under the mistletoe.

We really do not know about tomorrow. We both need to have a conversation that let us both see on the outside as if we are looking at each other’s insides. I want to see my smile back. The smile that has its own flaws, that is way beyond crooked. The goofiness that brings life to my upside down being is what I need to bring out to all those who may be looking for me, at me. So, my dear Willie Wonka, I want to say that when I see this face of yours in my mind even today, I want to tell you every day that I really do not want to change a single thing because I feel you are fine just the way you are. So being famously imperfectly perfect is the key to be okay. The way we both are just alright my friend. We may need a Charlie in our life, but that need to adopt a broken soul can stay put for some time further for you as well. I feel today is a good day when we need to take a break from never ending upgradation of our Chocolate Factory. Let it run its own course. Let us for once not interfere and stop letting others do the same with us and with themselves as well. Everything is fine and will be fine. What we need is to free our mind, forget about the boundaries and barbed wires. Let the ideas flow with the flow and let us grow as we go. The dentist dad is not going to shut us away anymore if we stay put, both of us! You need me willie as I need you. We want each other at our worst like any lover who want to show love without any pretence. I will be with you whenever you want me Willie and will push you just as you pushed me to write these words now. I can feel the places in your heart, the way you can feel my beat. I have done worse than we both can imagine but let us hold our hands, smile, and try to cross this bridge without drowning. Remember, we must reach across alive and find our own Charlie too!