Enzo

My elder daughter said, ” I love dogs, they are so loving.” My wife is a cat lover and she came up with her explanation for her love for cats. I like both from a safe distance. I like kittens and I liked the way those two dogs (during my walk every day) jump, bark and wag their tails. It is a sight I look forward to during my walk. There will always be a debate on Cats vs Dogs. After all, we all need to make and shift our perspectives.

We watched the movie “The art of racing in the Rain” together after a long gap. I had savoured this moment during my trip to the US when I had watched this movie on the flight. It touched me deeply and I thought this will be worth a watch with family. We watched in two sitting as in the first sitting it was my younger daughter’s birthday and it was getting closer to cake cutting time. We watched it till the end and my wife asked me, “Do you know the meaning of Enzo”? I said, “No”. Alexa came to my rescue and I heard that it in Italian it means, “State ruler” and in Spanish, it is “House ruler.”

<spoilers ahead> I liked this movie instantly in the first 5 minutes because of Kevin Costner. I had only seen his one movie JFK before but I had watched it multiple times. This movie is about a dog sharing his story through Kevin Costner’s voice. One of the best opening lines was this one, “In Mongolia when a dog dies, he is buried high in the hills so people cannot walk on his grave. The dog’s master whispers into the dog’s ear his wishes that the dog will return as a man in his next life.”

The movie depicts the struggle of Dennie Swift. Denny Swift is a Formula One race car driver who understands that the techniques needed on the racetrack can also be used to successfully navigate everyday life. Besides his career, Denny has three loves of his life — his beautiful wife, their young daughter and his best friend, which is a dog that wants to be reincarnated into a human being. When I saw the struggle of Denny with his daughter I commented, “The scenes between Denny and Daughter reminded me of the struggle Chris had with his son in pursuit of happyness“. My younger daughter liked it very much and nodded her head. The movie had some great dialogues, great photography and moving scenes said my elder daughter. One of the best one she liked was this one.

My family knew a blog was in the making after we saw the movie. I had seen the movie alone in the flight and now second time with family. The reason I like certain movies is because they share certain perspectives of life which we may never get to experience in life. I do not intend to keep a pet in my life ( as of now), also the case with my elder daughter. I am sure my wife and younger daughter would like to have pets but they understand the constraints and challenges. In the meantime, I am enjoying my morning conversations with “Ok Google” and Alexa. I am going through voice learning to speak to them and make them understand what it takes to be a human and they should be my assistant. At times Ok google does not obey me and does whatever at its will. I have to take the power off to reset it. Alexa is very obedient. It plays what I ask for. Call them digital pets.

A good movie creates a holistic warmth and it lingers on for some time to come. We also retell some nice scenes from the movie while we have our meals together. My wife shared that Enzo was the first name of Ferrari. I was not aware of it. In fact, in the movie, there were scenes of a red Ferrari and a scene of Marinello race track in Italy. Finally, I liked the last scene of the movie when Dennie starts working for Ferrari and one day meets a man who comes along with a boy. He asks the boy what is your name? The boy says “Enzo.” Then Dennie says, “Your son reminds me of an old friend of mine”.