The final embrace- the tale of two couples (click on this link to see the photo)

This my interpretative story of this heart rending photo- a story with two different endings in two different countries.

About twenty five years ago, two children were born- a boy and a girl.  Their parents loved them and they played innocently in the world of their dreams, wondering what they would do when they grew up.  When they grew up, they met and fell in love.  After marriage, came the children. Leaving their children to be looked after by the grandparents, these two made their way to work every day.  Saving up for their dreams, for their children’s and their parents’ dreams.

Ending One

They ended up in a sweatshop in Dhaka where they worked in a dark, crumbling concrete building, working from early morning to evening, sowing clothes. When they returned home, their children would be asleep.  They would eat dinner, talk in low tones and go to sleep, in a tight embrace- dreaming of the time when they would not have to work so hard.

One day, the building they worked in, crumbled away and fell.  Screaming out for each other, they found themselves in an embrace locked in by the concrete floors, closed out to the world in the darkness that enveloped them slowly suffocating and crushing them.  As their bodies were photographed and displayed around the world, their dreams in their arms, the owner and the architect denied that they did anything wrong, The companies whose clothes they sewed said that they were not responsible.  And the buyers of these clothes asserted that they would continue to buy clothes from these companies because they were ‘worth it’.  Soon everything about the dreams of that embrace would be forgotten.

Ending Two

They ended up in a company in Detroit where they worked in an open office building, working from early morning to evening. When they returned home, their children would be asleep.  They would eat dinner, talk in low tones and go to sleep, in a tight embrace- dreaming of the time when they would not have to work so hard.  One day, a mad man decided to blow up the building because he hated someone or everyone.

Screaming out for each other, they found themselves in an embrace locked in by the concrete floors, closed out to the world in the darkness that enveloped them slowly suffocating and crushing them. As their bodies would be recovered and buried ceremonially, their dreams would be front page news in every paper in the Western world.  There would be a minute’s silence to remember them, the anguish of their children and parents would be told in endless ways in print and Internet over many years.  The mad man responsible for killing them would be hunted down by the police and given a death sentence. The company where they worked would pay for their children’s education and living through the insurance policies. Their dreams about freedom and love of life would never be forgotten.

End- Every life is irreplaceable and beautiful!