Life is a Balance Sheet

This one is emotional… maybe incoherent. Yesterday I had decided to write about Taapsee Pannu. Today, I came to know of an incident which has shaken me…  I am now trying to piece both thoughts together. I hope it makes sense at the end.

Someone I know, has been accused of sexual harassment. I knew him personally more than fifteen years ago and today he is on the run. I have worked with him, gone to his house, his wife was friends with my mother and my wife and today he is hiding from the police. An FIR has been filed against him and there is a manhunt for him. The incident has shaken me. While I don’t want to make a value judgement and pronounce him guilty, I don’t even want to defend him and pronounce his innocence. Only he knows the truth.

Though I am sad for what his family has to go through, I have no sympathies for him. To me life is a game of chess. One needs to be aware of the consequence of every decision one is taking. If they are not, they are foolish. This statement from me may seem arrogant – you know what; it could even come back and bite me. But I am fine with the same.

I wondered how someone so educated can stoop to this level. And then I recollected a recent meeting with a famous author. He said that every successful man has three handles of power – Money, Position and Women. It is a surreal how quickly these words would prove itself when it comes to someone I know personally. There is a line which goes “Vinaashkaale Vipareetbuddhi”. Loosely translated, this means that when you are destined to destruct, you will have a brain fade.

Now about three film personalities. Over the last few months we have been hearing about the verbal table tennis between Kangana Ranaut and Karan Johar. And today I read that Kangana is to star in the next Dharma Productions (Karan Johar’s home production) movie. So was this a publicity stunt? I don’t know. But one thing is true. There is nepotism in the film industry and it is very difficult for someone to break in or get as many breaks as the star children get.

Which brings me to Taapsee Pannu.  While she is a successful actor down south, she made her Bollywood debut in 2013 with the remake of the movie Chashme  Baddoor, with her in the lead role. The movie sank at the box office and Taapsee’s career in Bollywood was going nowhere. Being an outsider also did not help. In 2015, she got a bit role in the Akshay Kumar starrer Baby. This character was liked so much by people that, the producers decided to make an entire movie on her character Shabana. I am sure, Taapsee would have expected the lead role in Chashme Baddoor to catapult her career. Even in her wildest of dreams, she would not have expected the eight minute role in Baby to take her career forward. In between there was a strong role in Pink, which had Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role with three unknown (?) women in the movie. This role got her critical acclaim. Gut tells me, Naam Shabana will be a hit and we shall see more of Taapsee.

What all the above events tell me clearly, is that your script is being written by someone else. They say fact is stranger than fiction, and it is absolutely true. When I look at events in my life over the last 24 months, they are nothing short of a potboiler. Unconnected events, unconnected people come together to form a future for you which you have never thought of. The way these things have come together and contributed to my career is clearly amazing.

Over the last few years, I have told people that I am fatalistic. No that doesn’t mean, I have resigned myself to fate. I still have to do all the hard work and take all the smart decisions that are required. However, the outcomes are not in my hand. I have had instances where whatsoever one does, if something is destined not to happen, it will not. At the same time, if something is scheduled to happen, it definitely will. I have seen both sides, despair and joy. I just need the strength to handle both success and failure.

Success can give you arrogance and the feeling that one can do nothing wrong. I pray that my scriptwriter gives me the power to keep my head on my shoulders, be humble, treat people rightly and with respect and not get carried away by success either of position or money. And just when you think you have the Midas touch, “Vinaashkaale Vipareetbuddhi” comes in to the picture. At the same time, I hope I have enough strength and resolve to handle failure.

Life, after all, is a Balance Sheet.