She was given sedatives and other drugs via injections so
initially she could not retain her consciousness for very long. She met with
few people in asylum – Villete: Zedka who was suffering from depression, Mari,
who was a lawyer, had panic attacks which Doc Igor referred as ‘fear’ and
finally Eduard – the schizophrenic with whom Veronika fell in eternal love
later on.
She met with Zedka and asked “what is mad”. Zedka explained her
that mad person is the one who is different from others. He tends to deviate
from the set norms or so called practices of society. Because most of us don’t
have courage to act differently, therefore we don’t accept change. She gave
examples of great scientists like Albert Einstein and Newton and philosophers
who discovered hidden truth about life and this world. They were not the normal
people. They were extra ordinary and thus changed the world from their
knowledge. Zedka made sense to Veronika and she thought she should not have been
admitted into mental hospital.
Veronika started feeling dull and lost interest in life, in
fact few remaining days of life. She wanted to die but she didn’t know how to
materialize her wish in a mental hospital where she was kept under observation
all the time. She had enough time to think about her past. What she had and
what she did in these twenty four years of life. Her past flashed back into her
mind. She did a good university degree in law but ended up doing a job as
librarian. She spent half of her life in eating sandwiches as a part of her set
routine. Got back from work, rush into the bar, then to lover’s bed and finally
hit her bed to sleep. She didn’t want to sleep in someone else’s bed. She was
following this routine since long and thus left charm in life. She was scared
of trying new exciting things. She probably didn’t know how to add colors to
her life. At Villete, she tried few new things, like slapping to a Fraternity
member was something she never thought of doing in public. She began playing
piano. It was something she always wanted to do but couldn’t make it. There,
she met with Eduard – schizophrenic who was living in his own world with a
‘Vision of Paradise’ in mind. He didn’t talk to Veronika but always asked her
to play pianao in moonlight. Veronika started enjoying doing it for somebody
she didn’t know.
At last, they both fell in love. Eduard told her his story
what brought him into Villete. He wanted to be a painter but his family wanted
him to pursue a career as diplomat. He indulged himself in abstract painting
and envisioned to create a series of “Vision of Paradise”. His parents were
frightened of losing him and he thought he had discovered himself. Upon negating his
passion on the wish of his parents, he lost the interest in ‘real’ world and
went into a ‘virtual’ world of his own imagination. When he was brought into Villete, he was diagnosed as mild schizophrenia.
Veronika was getting passionate about Eduard and frightened
to lose everything soon. Because she was dying and it was her own wish. Now she had just 24 more hours to live. She
decided to make most of her every moment. She told Dr Igor that she wanted to
go out and do things which she never did. She wanted to tell her mother that
she love her. She wanted to explore the world. But now it was too late.
Same day Eduard and Veronika escaped from the Villete. They
went to the most expensive restaurant, got drunk and started talking non sense.
They laughed out loud and the restaurant manager had to ask them to leave
without clearing the bills. They went to the castle at the top of hill and
Vernokia asked him to paint herself after her death. She made him promise that
he would continue painting because this is his passion.
Veronika didn’t die.
Dr Igor was successful in controlling Vitriol (Bitterness)
in Veronika. He created ‘awareness of living’ by creating ‘awareness of death’.
And it worked in case of Veronika. She had every reason to be happy but she
tried to commit suicide. She could change her life by doing what she actually wanted.
If she could please herself rather than pleasing others she might not have
thought about taking her life. Interestingly, now when she knew she is alive
only for few days, she got enough time to visualize and evaluate her past and
look at the mistakes she did or the mistakes she never did. She had encountered
the love of life at the most crucial stage. This is point when she realized
that life is worth living.
Review by:
Muhammad Umair Raheel
