When I was a kid, we didn't have cable. I had to make do with just the national channel. I would feel very left out when other kids would discuss the latest (pirated) movies that the friendly neighbourthood cable guy would beam every day … So I adapted … I made it a point to listen to the discussions the first thing in the morning … and later in the day, I would start a conversation about the movie ... of course with ones who hadn't seen the movie … I would narrate the movie and the funny dialogues and chase sequences in a way that they felt that I'd seen it over and over ... Of course, sometimes I would get into sticky situations coz' I was generally ignorant about a lot of the 'icons' … I didn't know the difference between Jackie Chan and Jackie Shroff … neither did I know who Fido Dido was, or who Madonna was :) … But, all that made me a great listener … And I still am ...
When I was a kid, I didn't have a GF … never felt the need for one back then … I had a lot of friends who were girls, but I wasn't ready for any 'relationship' then ... Guess, it was coz' I wasn't as 'excited' as the other guys ... possibly because I hadn't watched any 'movies' beamed after midnight by the socially conscious neighbourhood cable guy who humbly sought to 'educate' the masses about the birds and the bees ... more power to the media, anyone?
Now that I think about it, I have never faced as much pressure to find that special someone than back then ... peer-pressure was a way of life, and I wanted to be just as cool as the others ... and to be hip, I needed a GF ... So I adapted ... Soon enough, people were whispering ... that I was in a relationship with one 'Nisha' ... that we were going around for almost a year now ... that no one knew about it, as Nisha was in a different school in a far-flung suburb ... the Nisha angle made me quite popular for a while ... but I soon grew tired of answering some pretty good (and dangerous) questions ... and after a lot of planning, and a lot of fanfare (read depression), I packed her off to another city ... I brooded over Nisha for maybe two weeks, soaking in the sympathy and attention like a raisin in a bottle of rum :) ... After the Nisha episode, no one in school questioned/teased me for not having a GF ... even after a year, I would still tell curious people that I wasn't over Nisha, and that I wasn't ready for any relationship ... Ah, the good old, complicated days ... :)
The best thing that came out of the Nisha episode - To pull off the scam, I had to understand the troubles/feelings of people in relationships … I did this, primarily by putting my listening skills to good use in countless conversations with friends who were in 'relationships' ... Over the years, I have only added to my knowledge about relationships by reading, listening a lot, and of course common sense ... I know today, that the succes to most relationships lies in constantly trusting, forgiving when that trust is broken, and most importantly - knowing when to talk and when to shut up
When I was a kid, I lied too much ... mostly to fit in ... to get people to just accept me, if not like me ... I am no longer a kid, but I see the very same thing being done by so many adults today ... and it makes me sad, as I've realized quite early in life, that I can't please everyone ... I've realized that I shouldn't even try to do so ... as, even if I succed, people wouldn't really be liking/accepting me for who I am ... they just like the lies ... and I no longer want to live a lie just for their benefit ...
I have learnt that life is not about how much money I make or how many things I accumulate … it's not even about the number of friends I make … it's about whether I make a positive difference to this world … If I leave this world a better place than what it was when I got here, I'll consider it a successful life ... I know that I probably won't do something that changes the whole world for the better, but if I manage to make it a better place for even a few people, I'll be happy ... and God willing, I will do so ...
Labels: Life
