Childhood – The best thing that ever happened.
How much I wish, I had never grown up?
But it’s not necessary that each n’ every wish comes true.
Unfortunately enough this wish too is amongst those wishes, which never came true.
Eventually I grew up and the process of growing up day by day qualified me for the game of life.
However childhood is too honest to be called a game.
Children never take part in games. Innocent as they are, they just play.
That’s what differentiates children from adults.
No Games. Only Play.
Oh! How much I wish I had'nt grown up?
Childhood indeed was the best thing that ever happened.
I grieve over my inability to stay a child because, I know someone who never grows up. I met him first when I was in school. I used to long to meet him. And when we used to meet, he used to fly around. But I was dumb enough to not understand how he used to fly. Then one day, he disappeared somewhere. However he appeared again a week back in my library. The rest was taken care by my temptations to meet my age old friend. And you know what? He is still of the age exactly equivalent to the age he was of when I had met him for the first time.
Meet Peter Pan:
A boy who wouldn’t grow up.
Peter Pan is a tale of a boy but not a normal one. Peter stays in Neverland (A land which was never there). He can fly, talk to fairies and mermaids, fight pirates, lose and stitch back his shadow to himself….. and what not? The most amazing thing about him is that he never grows up. Peter Pan also has a sidekick in form of a little fairy named Tinker Bell. A lill’ superhero in every meaning.
The Darlings:
The Darling family comprises of Mr. & Mrs. Darling, their three children – Wendy, John and Michael in that order by age. Wendy being the elder sister, John and Michael her two younger brothers. They have a maid servant named Liza and there is a doggie named Nana.
Peter Pan enters the scene:
Everything is perfectly picture perfect until Peter Pan is felt in the house at nights. Mrs. Darling is worried as to who this Peter Pan is. To Mrs. Darling, Peter Pan is a stranger but no he ain’t a perfect stranger to her. With a lill’ bit of efforts to gain a peep in her own childhood days, she faintly recalls of some strange stories of Peter Pan who lives with fairies and accompanies children when they die till half of their way so that they don’t get frightened. As any normal mother, she is worried about her children and the strange existence of Peter Pan on their minds.
One night, Peter Pan makes an appearance in Wendy’s room as he flies in through her window looking for his lost shadow. He soon makes friends with Wendy, John and Michael and with the help of Tinker Bell, he teaches them to fly. Then they fly to Neverland and thus starts an adventurous story of Peter Pan.
The world of Peter Pan:
Neverland is where Peter Pan lives. Neverland is a place where all the Lost Boys have made their homes or rather say a society. Peter Pan plays the saviour, leader and the most beloved boy in Neverland.
Here Peter Pan and the boys fight pirates with swords. The pirates have a crook leader named Captain Hook. Peter Pan kills pirates and even forgets that he ever killed them. A long long life that he leads is sufficient a reason for him to forget such petty things. He fears no death. He often says, “To die will be an awfully big adventure.”
Neverland is just the right place to be for a summer vacation. It has Lagoons, Drunken Elves, Pirates, Red Indians, mermaids and so on. Now with Wendy entering Neverland, an air of romance has filled the airs of Neverland. Peter has a soft corner for Wendy who sees Peter as her knight in shining armor, and even Captain Hook treats Wendy politely as he knows very well how to treat a lady. To the lost boys, Wendy is their mother.
That’s Neverland – The world of Peter Pan and his lost boys. Where boys strictly lost or wish to get lost are invited.
Who Hooked Hook?
Peter’s and Hook’s is an age old rivalry. Once in a sword fight, Peter cut one of Hook’s hands and let the crocodile relish on it. However along with his hand, the crocodile also gulped down his watch which keeps ticking inside the crocodile’s abdomen and the tick tick signals Hook that the crocodile is around somewhere. Now Hook has engineered an iron hook in the place of his hand which he uses to fight.
A villain who is not all cruel. Captain Hook is a villain with a heart. Hook is an aristocratic pirate who feels bad that no children love him. He hates the thought of his own death and is afraid of the ticking crocodile.
The Peter Pan Protocol:
Peter Pan is a wonderfully magical fiction told in a bed – time story fashion. The boyish character of Peter Pan lands up from nowhere and steals the golden hearts of mothers, daughters and fairies. That’s how Peter Pan is portrayed in the book. He is polite n’ tender when with the people he loves. And a warrior with a lion heart when with the crooked.
Peter Pan has a charm to kill. He is described as a lill’ boy who never grows up. Neither physically nor mentally. But he is a philosopher in his own right.
In the whole book, Peter Pan is a small boy who lives life in a grandly adventurously imaginary way. J. M. Barrie portrays Peter Pan like a beautiful illusion brought to life.
About the Author:
J. M. Barrie has written many masterpieces like The Adventures Of Peter Pan, The Little White Bird, Margaret Ogilvy and many more. But no doubt that Peter Pan stands out as a winner in every sense. The wild string of imaginations that flows through the book is what brings Peter Pan close to heart. The first line itself gave me a tang of Peter Pan. The book starts this way, “All children, except one, grow up.” James Barrie uses a weapon named Word artfully.
The whole book is written in an amazingly philosophical fashion. For one instance, when Mrs. Darling first encounters the name Peter Pan it’s written in this way, “Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter Pan when she was tidying up her children's minds.” This is a situation where at nights Mrs. Darling peeps in her children's minds to see what goes on in her children’s minds.
The language matches the mood of the tale perfectly. The sharp characterization adds to the fun. J. M. Barrie paints Peter Pan, using the colors of joy, tenderness, youth and innocence. And he paints Hook’s character using the colors of unhappiness, toughness, wretchedness and guilt. Wendy comes in front of us painted in beauty, dreams, love and imaginations.
What happens when these characters interact is that we get to read a classic in true sense. Peter Pan remains an unshaken landmark in the world of literature.
Excerpts:
''When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.''
''Every time a child says 'I don't believe in fairies' there is a little fairy somewhere that falls down dead.''
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A must read by children as well as adults.
