Monday, December 19, 2011

Meeting Havel, the "Czech Idol"

It's been a while since I have written anything serious in my blog, but today I felt compelled to do so because two opposite leaders died during this past weekend: Havel and Kim Jong Il. I will not waste my time writing about the latter. It is ironic; however, that two leaders that died almost the same day could be so opposites. Havel demonstrated that the "pen is mightier than the sword"; and Kim Jong Il could have started the first nuclear war of the modern era.

My first visit to the Czech Republic was right after the "Velvet Revolution" It was my father's first time back to his country after escaping from Communism in 1948. He did not want "to make the same mistake his parents had made of staying when the Nazis came". This is a whole different story, and soon the book on my father's memoirs will be published for those interested in his experience as a Holocaust survivor.

In the summer of 1995, my parents and sister attended my Harvard graduation. We were all excited because Havel was getting honoris causa doctor. After the ceremony was over, there was a long line of graduates waiting to get his books signed. My father and I made the line, but unfortunately (or fortunately), security decided it was time for him to leave. He was President of the Czech Republic; so he had a lot of security around him. My dad yelled in Czech to him something, and he stopped walking away and told security to let my father and I come to him to say hello, which became a 10 minute conversation all in Czech, of course. I could see my father and Havel laughing like two guys who just met in a bar -- the same Havel, who became legendary and an idol in Prague and the world, showing that it was not a tale after all. Finally, he looked at me and said: "your father is very proud of you and should be". Later, my father told me they were laughing because he was saying that finally he gets a degree from Harvard, which was what his mother would have always wanted. Ok, now he was gone; I think someone named Bill Clinton was waiting for him. I don't know if I will write a autobiography when I get old, but this was definitely a highlight in my life.

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